It’s the genealogy service that shocked the criminal-justice world—and anybody with skeletons in the closet—
with its role in cracking the case on
the long-sought Golden State Killer suspect. Now the gene-keepers are making it much harder for cops to use its clients private data to crack cold cases. New terms of service from GEDmatch, one of the world’s largest DNA databases, will now require those who use its services to search for lost relatives to “opt in” if they want to allow law-enforcement officials to have access their data. The move will make it much harder for police to access the data on the site, and the DNA profiles it holds could even be rendered “useless” in solving cases, BuzzFeed News reports.
GEDmatch, which keeps profiles of more than 1.2 million people, has been involved in cracking more than 50 criminal cold cases. But after a
BuzzFeed investigation exposed how the company “bent their rules” to allow a Utah police unit probing an assault case to access its database, the firm has changed its terms and conditions for users.