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> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA. Noob question, but how does this work?

by awb 7y ago

tapland 7y ago
Your DNA is extremely similar to your close relatives. Those murderers found through 23 and me data? They didn't submit their DNA, their family members did.
- stevenicr 7y ago
  I may have a story saved on an old sd card somewhere.. but I think it was Italian? A major crime was solved by pattern matching DNA to a close relative, which brought about a few people in the town who's DNA was 90(?)% similar or something.. they did find the killer/rapist whatever they were looking for.. but the process of investigating and questioning led investigators, family members, and through rumor / whispering and news articles to discover that one of the grandparents (of a well known family) had cheated and birthed a love child that was assumed to be of whatever family name.. and then they had kids - and they all had positions in the town.. but now the truth was known that none of those grand kids, their families, etc were actually part of the whatever-family-name dynasty. A whole group of people and a town and some industries changed forever because dna is similar (and much dna is not as well) - and the use of this technique roping in and affecting others that had nothing to do with alleged crime - certainly can have other real world consequences.
alistairSH 7y ago
Roughly... Crime is committed, police find DNA sample at scene, police compare sample with online DNA registry, hits as a near-match for personX, police now know that a sibling/cousin of personX is the culprit. That sibling/cousin never allowed their own DNA to be collected. This happened in 2018... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27/golden-state-killer-dna-website-gedmatch-was-used-to-identify-joseph-deangelo-as-suspect-police-say/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27...
- mindslight 7y ago
  ... police now think that ... To me, that is the real threat - false positives. myopic reliance on the database, and an assumption the computer is always correct.

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA. Noob question, but how does this work?

by awb 7y ago

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA. Noob question, but how does this work?

tapland 7y ago

Your DNA is extremely similar to your close relatives. Those murderers found through 23 and me data? They didn't submit their DNA, their family members did.

stevenicr 7y ago
I may have a story saved on an old sd card somewhere.. but I think it was Italian? A major crime was solved by pattern matching DNA to a close relative, which brought about a few people in the town who's DNA was 90(?)% similar or something.. they did find the killer/rapist whatever they were looking for.. but the process of investigating and questioning led investigators, family members, and through rumor / whispering and news articles to discover that one of the grandparents (of a well known family) had cheated and birthed a love child that was assumed to be of whatever family name.. and then they had kids - and they all had positions in the town.. but now the truth was known that none of those grand kids, their families, etc were actually part of the whatever-family-name dynasty. A whole group of people and a town and some industries changed forever because dna is similar (and much dna is not as well) - and the use of this technique roping in and affecting others that had nothing to do with alleged crime - certainly can have other real world consequences.

alistairSH 7y ago

Roughly... Crime is committed, police find DNA sample at scene, police compare sample with online DNA registry, hits as a near-match for personX, police now know that a sibling/cousin of personX is the culprit. That sibling/cousin never allowed their own DNA to be collected. This happened in 2018... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27/golden-state-killer-dna-website-gedmatch-was-used-to-identify-joseph-deangelo-as-suspect-police-say/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27...

mindslight 7y ago
... police now think that ... To me, that is the real threat - false positives. myopic reliance on the database, and an assumption the computer is always correct.