23 And (Identify My Relatives And) Me
While it's absolutely great that cops identified the Golden State Killer, what's disturbing -- if you haven't considered this and if you care a whit about privacy -- is how they did it: using consumer genealogical websites.
Richard Winton, Joseph Serna, Paige St. John, and Benjamin Oreskes write in the LA Times:
The break that authorities said led them to the man accused of being the Golden State Killer came when they linked DNA evidence from the slayings to genetic information contained on a consumer genealogical website, authorities said Thursday.Investigators knew the killer only through a string of DNA recorded at several of the dozen murder scenes. Shaun Hampton, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, said officials had struggled for years to figure out whom that DNA belonged to. Recently, they tapped genealogical databases that the public uses to search for relatives and ancestors, he said.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that information from the websites dramatically reduced the the size of their search. Eventually they narrowed the investigation to several families listed in the database, with a pool of about about 100 men who fit the age profile of the killer, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hampton declined to name the site used or provide details about exactly how authorities made the match.
...Unlike the federal DNA database that law enforcement uses in hopes of an exact match with a suspect, a commercial website generally provides broader information about a family tree, said Ruth Dickover, director of UC Davis' forensic science program.
It's highly likely a member of DeAngelo's family was using the site where the match was made, Dickover said.
"You'll get the most useful results from a parent or child of the person. As you go further away, it'll be less and less useful. A sibling is less useful, a cousin is less useful," she said.
Since authorities were looking for a man, investigators could immediately cut out half the results from their search. If the results produced a surname -- a possibility if a male relative had submitted his genetic information -- that too could narrow the search, she added.
"This was a shot in the dark, definitely," Dickover said. "If that's what they did, that approach is very new and innovative and explains how they were able to crack a case when the more traditional types of DNA testing couldn't."
Privacy policies? What these sites have would better be called "all your privacy are belong to us." Gizmodo goes comprehensive on this.
And how accurate are these tests anyway?
Addenda: Two other places your data may be exposed are court records and the realtor's MLS databae.
While accuracy may be questionable, it will still allow the extension of "probable cause" to investigate a smaller number of people intrusively, much like the "lie detector".
Radwaste at April 27, 2018 3:06 AM
> And how accurate are
> these tests anyway?
Pretty accurate. A woman in my life had some family fractures with both parents' ancestors. Within the space of about three months, these services resulted in joyous reunions with both sides of her family. It would make a *fantastic* film treatment.
I'm not saying this all doesn't eventually lead to pain, but there's an upside which ought not be ignored, because it's size-hyooge.
Crid at April 27, 2018 4:52 AM
You never had the amount of privacy that the complainers are alleging social media "stole" from you. Computers simply made gathering, storing, organizing, and using that information easier.
Conan the Grammarian at April 27, 2018 6:36 AM
My wife and I did the DNA testing thing. We were both disappointed to find that we were exactly what we'd been told we were. No hidden surprises, no long lost ancestry, no strange forks in the family tree.
I am straight up the whitest white man, 64% Irish/Scottish/Welsh with a little European, British, and Scandinavian thrown in for good measure. Oh well, I can always "identify" as another race; or invent a family legend about a Cherokee and an elopement.
Conan the Grammarian at April 27, 2018 6:44 AM
AI will make mining that data and correlation much easier. It will extract out bits that appear to be unrelated and irrelevant and show their relatedness and relevance.
Both good and bad.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 27, 2018 6:46 AM
Huh... Potential misuse of a massive DNA database by law enforcement? Never saw THAT coming! (major_eye_roll_here)
bkmale at April 27, 2018 6:47 AM
I am straight up the whitest white man, 64% Irish/Scottish/Welsh with a little European, British, and Scandinavian thrown in for good measure.
You could be my long lost cousin.
I was actually surprised, since my father's line is German, drawn from elements of Westphalian and Prussian. I thought I would see more of that, and not as much Scot/Irish.
But that may explain my liking of whiskey.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 27, 2018 6:55 AM
Was anyone really unaware that this info would be stored in a large database? I'm shocked, yes shocked that this info might be used for other purposes.
Jay at April 27, 2018 7:11 AM
So was I. My father's family is all German Lutheran with some Scottish mixed in. The family surname comes from Germany - Rhineland Palatinate. Since my mother's family is all Irish and Dad's is mixed, we've just said we're Irish. Turns out we are.
Conan the Grammarian at April 27, 2018 7:30 AM
The company specifically says they will link you with others in your family. Why shouldn't the cops be allowed to use the exact same service they offer to the public?
If you want privacy then don't sign up.
Ben at April 27, 2018 8:12 AM
> we were exactly what we'd
> been told we were.
Same here.
Crid at April 27, 2018 8:16 AM
Keep in mind that a DNA test can only tell you where your ancestry came from, not where they lived or what culture they absorbed.
So, if you're a black man living in Glasgow who considers himself Scottish because his parents were born there, your DNA test will tell you you're African, not Scottish.
Conan the Grammarian at April 27, 2018 8:28 AM
I have no problem with government using consumer data in this way to find a murderer or rapist. But if they start using it for lesser crimes, or companies start using it for advertising or to sell the data, then I would be more concerned. (As I already am about the way Google and Facebook handle the data they gather from their own users. I say users and not customers because, like the TV and radio industries, you are only a customer if you are writing checks to that company. Otherwise you are the product.)
jdgalt at April 27, 2018 10:46 AM
Oooh, did anyone else watch Westworld on Sunday? Did you catch that they’ve been harvesting DNA???
I’d try one of the DNA tests, for fun. I’m fairly certain I know what my results would be, but it would still be interesting. I think as long as you understand that you’re being compared to current populations, versus ancestral ethnic populations, it would at least be interesting to have the information. I think these tests will be far more informative as technology changes.
Both my family and my husbands can trace our lineage back to our ancestral villages before the families came to America, and on some branches we can go back a couple hundred years. I know that at least one of my ancestors whose mother died on the journey over was illegitimate, a fact that we were unaware of until my aunt actually went to our ancestral village and reviewed church marriage records. And both my husband and I have ancestors with family names that indicate that the families were foreign settlers (Nye and Novasad). So at this point I don’t think any of the tests are capable of accurately answering specific questions that I have about my personal lineage, but maybe they will be able to eventually. If they start testing DNA from old cemeterys, or medieval burial sites, imagine what we could learn from that.
ahw at April 27, 2018 10:56 AM
The privacy rights belong to the people who voluntarily sign up for these data bases, not the criminals who happen to be related to them.
Leaving your DNA at a crime scene is like taking your mom’s car to a drive by shooting. It just makes it easier to identify the perp. And DNA evidence is by no means the slam dunk you think it is.
Isab at April 27, 2018 1:01 PM
23 and me is how I found out I'm not part Cherokee, but I AM part black... someone lied to pass!!!!
NicoleK at April 27, 2018 1:20 PM
Sometimes DNA sucks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQwhz76Mbe0
lujlp at April 27, 2018 2:53 PM
I haven't taken one of the DNA tests...I've thought about it, but then I keep reading stories about family trees that have an odd branch sticking out. I also have serious questions about which lab is running the tests, and how safe and secure they are. I'm not quite ready to send my DNA off in the mail. Also, just because you get the DNA test done, you don't have to post your results. It's a separate opt-in if you want to find family ties.
In the case of the Golden State Killer - it's pretty slick how the police got him. There's a website (gedmatch.com) which is a clearing house for DNA data - they found a partial match to the killer in there (this database is completely free for professional and amateur geneaologists), they then tracked down the person that was a partial match, and went through their trash to find something containing dna, i.e. dixie cup, cigarette butt, etc. That's how they got their man.
Frankly, it seems like it would have been a lot easier and cheaper to buy the DNA kit, swabbed whatever DNA they had on the kit swabs and sent them in. A few weeks and $99 later, and they probably would have had a more complete DNA profile. Although, I'm not sure if they need epithelial cells from the cheek, or if you could put blood, or rub the swab on a shirt or something similar.
I'm glad they caught the guy. I'm hoping the DNA registries are more upfront about what can happen when you make your DNA results public (they probably won't) - because we know how short people's memories are. In a year nobody will remember this story, and they'll have forgotten how accessible that info ends up being.
sara at April 27, 2018 3:21 PM
Like I said, they're accurate...
Not good enough to incriminate, but crazy accurate
Crid at April 27, 2018 7:17 PM
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