I've come to the view that genetic-genealogy databases that allow uploads are a substantial risk to genetic privacy & privacy more generally. It's not just law enforcement who might be using these databases to snoop on us.
There are companies that offer private citizens access to law enforcement-style tools for collecting genetic data. See article by @sarahzhang . There's no real way of knowing these may have already been used on people w.o. their permission. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
@sarahzhang One fair comment is that Facebook/Google etc already have far more info. on us all than genetics currently reveals. But you don't have to buy into genetic exceptionalism, or some dystopian view, to be concerned about new sources of data about ourselves moving into public realm.
@sarahzhang This is a good time to push on these issues, we don't have to have law enforcement having a free pass to genetic genealogy searches. Really if they want those resources they can build a new CODIS-like resource & new legal framework, rather than piggie backing on hobbyists.
@sarahzhang I'm happy with serious criminals being caught by genetic genealogy, but I'm not ok w. law enforcement using databases that are easily spoofed into false leads and where far more info is available than LE needs.
@sarahzhang If genetic genealogists want databases that allow uploads, they should be pushing @23andMe & @Ancestry for cryptographic signatures for these datasets. They should also be pushing GEDmatch to clean up its act, otherwise, it is a complete liability for genetic privacy.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry Personally, I think that these databases should be stopping uploads unless there are crypto-signatures. LE isnt the only issue, there's also high profile risks of some public figure having their data uploaded & their family history or genetic ancestry used against them.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry These upload databases are a wonderful tool for family history but they're at risk compromising many peoples' privacy. There's lots of issues w. @Ancestry & @23andMe, but at least insisting that people send in spit in tubes is some barrier to what is uploaded.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry Sorry for the multiple long threads on this topic, but it is important & now's the time for us to be discussing these issues & pushing on this. Really should be a blog post, but these [sleep-deprived] thoughts are mainly written between naps by our baby.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry meaning while our baby is napping, not that she writes the tweets. Although, she's already better at sentence construction than me.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry .@FTDNANews and @MyHeritage moving towards cryptographic signatures (à la @erlichya et al), following @_peterney & @DocEdge85's preprints. Now we need @Ancestry & @23andMe onboard. newscientist.com/article/222272… 
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry @FTDNANews @MyHeritage @erlichya @_peterney @DocEdge85 So there's a reasonable argument that GEDmatch, FTDNA, and MyHeritage should state that they're no longer accepting uploads w.o. a crypto-signature. They're the ones that created the privacy issues by allowing uploads of kits.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry @FTDNANews @MyHeritage @erlichya @_peterney @DocEdge85 Obv. @23andMe & @Ancestry have a huge market share, but genetic genealogists could move to buy their kits from companies that ensure they can be used safely across reputable platforms. I'm likely being naive/idealistic on this point.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry @FTDNANews @MyHeritage @erlichya @_peterney @DocEdge85 The issue of warrants being used to search opt-out kits is somewhat separable. It's obviously very concerning, but requiring crypto-signatures could at least move these publicly-queryable databases away from non-sanctioned searches and privacy attacks.
@sarahzhang @23andMe @Ancestry @FTDNANews @MyHeritage @erlichya @_peterney @DocEdge85 Personally, I think that people should just be deleting their data from these publicly-queryable, genetic-genealogy databases until these issues are resolved. These long-range LE searches only worthwhile when databases are very large, eg GEDmatch forcing opt-in made it useless.
