California authorised familial searching in the police database in 2008 but only in certain circumstances: dnaforensics.com/statesandfamil… #GoldenStateKiller
"Only DNA database profiles from samples collected from convicted offenders are searched as part of California’s familial search project." oag.ca.gov/bfs/prop69/faq…
A familial searching protocol has to be completed before such searches take place: oag.ca.gov/sites/all/file…
The police in California are now extending familial searching and using GEDmatch, an open source international genealogy database which is used by genealogists and not criminals: mercurynews.com/2018/04/26/anc…
While we all want to see justice for victims of crime there is also a need to protect the privacy and human rights of innocent individuals. These searches were done without the informed consent of the 900,000 GEDmatch users.
What procedures and protocols were in place to allow such a search? Are such searches legal according to California law?
The big commercial websites such as AncestryDNA and 23andMe were not used in this case: nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/…
This is a good document which provides an overview of familial DNA searching policies in the US: ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/…
