Golden State Killer and DNA privacy

[Spider Jerusalem]

31. That isn't technically a privacy issue as such.

It's using customer DNA sumbitted to commercial services in a way consistent with its intended use; if you submit a DNA sample to a company focused on genetic genealogy, your DNA is added to their database, and compared against everyone else's, and you receive a list of DNA matches to whom you are likely to be related. Some consumer DNA companies, like 23andMe, let you opt out of their "relative finder" service, which means your DNA won't be compared to others in that way. So if law enforcement submit a DNA sample to a commercial DNA service that does such matching, it's entirely within the terms of service the users agreed to, and within the scope of their intended use of the site (NB that such DNA matching does not expose personal genomic data to others).