Open-source DNA website GEDmatch helped crack Golden State Killer case

Or, more to the point, not one single person has any recourse, whether they're an evil serial killer/rapist or not.

But, I'm trying to think about a situation where a secret identity might leave behind trace evidence that could be linked to a readily identifiable relative's samples, thus unmasking... say Spiderman.

I guess, any situation involving trespassing or physical presence under other circumstances, where a person might leave behind a single hair follicle, including the root of the strand.

DNA evidence is often collected from fingerprints and it has been shown in many experiments that people can pick up and deposit DNA from other people.

As a result your DNA can be found at a location you have never been to.

If DNA evidence is being used to narrow down a small group of suspects this is less of a problem than if you are searching a population scale group.

The issue with this use of technology is it creates an air of science to investigating large groups of people.

It's easy to imagine a world where if they find someone that's likely a first (or second!) cousin of a rapist, that they then surveil the entire family and use that as evidence for warrants or other investigative tactics. In this case they cross referenced the familial identification with other factors, but imagine if they hadn't? They might have put a tail on everyone who shares a common grandparent or great-grandparent.

The problem is not for the rapist or killer, the problem is for someone innocent getting matched as one.

If you run a 99.99% accurate match against a database with 100,000 people, one of whom is the criminal, you are going to get 10 false positives.

If you're one of those false positives, good luck convincing a jury that the 99.99% accurate test is wrong in your case. There's a reason for why general warrants, and most kinds of fishing expeditions are illegal.

Your statement doesnt make sense. as a male, you are naturally capable of rape.

There is a chance, admittedly probably not a good one, that my DNA could be in a database associated with a rape or murder. Maybe yours might be as well. When I was in high school, I found a bit of cloth in the woods. No idea where it came from. But it got used to clean up after some coital fun and then discarded (I think in a parking garage?). Who knows where it eventually landed and whether it was taken as concrete physical evidence of my involvement in something? If only not being found guilty of things was as easy as not hurting anyone...

But a lot of us like freedom and democracy. And given than my grandpa stilll has a number tatooed on his wrist, I really wish people would start taking human database as a threat. The potential for abuse is way too great to be ignored.

No crime needed. Here's some common means over the last 10 years:

[0] https://www.propublica.org/article/dna-dragnet-in-some-citie... [1] https://freedomoutpost.com/texas-cops-detaining-individuals-... [2] http://www.wlky.com/article/accused-killer-challenging-traff...

In the case of the serial killer, they got a match through the suspect’s relatives’ DNA and filtering for age and location.

Then they went through the suspect’s trash to get an item with his DNA on it.

> If you've given your DNA freely to the government by participating in a violent crime

Ignoring the intentionally bizarre phrasing ("if you've freely stoned yourself to death by committing adultery"), this is unrelated to the actual situation, which forces people arrested for a felony to surrender their DNA.

1) Both not restricted to "violent" crimes and not including all violent crimes, and

2) not requiring a conviction, or charges to be pressed.

Ah, I'd forgotten about that usage. Thanks, that does make a little more sense.