Anyone do the Ancestry Thing?

[Infolurker]

If you want your DNA information owned and monetized by an unregulated industry then you should certainly give them a sample.

No, they don't own the DNA nor the DNA data - not if they are based in the US or EU, anyhow. They DO monetize it by farming it out in anonymous bundles to bio researchers, which I personally am ok with - part of that "profit" goes to pay for the expenses of sequencing the DNA, the part I didn't pay for.

When did they become unregulated? The FDA was regulating them, so when did that change?

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Police Use of DNA: Mistakes, Error and Fraud

http://dnapolicyinitiative.org/police-us...and-fraud/

If your profile is in a DNA database you face higher risk than other citizens of being falsely linked to a crime. You are at higher risk of false incriminations by coincidental DNA matches, by laboratory error, and by intentional planting of DNA. There can be no doubt that database inclusion increases these risks.

Ethical Concerns of DNA Databases used for Crime Control

https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/...e-control/

These issues include basic human error and human bias, linking innocent people to crimes, privacy rights, and a surge in racial disparities.

In 2011, in their much-cited study, researchers Itiel Dror and Greg Hampikian found that DNA interpretation varied significantly among lab technicians and forensic experts. Dror and Hampikian sent the exact same DNA mixtures to 17 different experts to ascertain whether they would arrive at the same conclusion as the original forensic analysis.

Challenging the viewpoint that “context” doesn’t matter, the 17 forensic scientists arrived at remarkably different results. Dror and Hampikian argue that this demonstrates that what the forensic scientist knows about the investigation (for example that the prosecutors are relying on the results generated to move forward) may impact the interpretation of a DNA sample.  Perhaps then, it is no surprise, that there are now numerous cases of lab techs who make mistakes or argue that there was a DNA match when there was none.