https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 13 Apr 2026 02:31:05 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2819056 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 21:38:51 +0000 Hypatia 2819056@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@kiddosc: I'm not interested in helping build the crime database because we have so many immoral laws. I think people are mistaken in believing they are innocent and have nothing to hide--they don't understand just how many laws are on the books and how they could inadvertently be found guilty. It's why any cop will tell you that the absolute worst thing you can do is talk to the police directly without a lawyer. It never helps and at worst, it can hurt you, even if you 100% believe you did nothing wrong and "just want to help."</p> <p>I'm on mobile so I can't spend a lot of time going through all the laws that come to mind, but here's one. There's a federal law against possessing the feathers of any wild bird, and the punishment is up to 6 months in prison per feather. Now, do I think federal investigators are spending a lot of time convicting people of this? No. But people have and do get punished for it. And there are dozens of laws just like it that are used as excuses to get people (often police will spend a huge amount of time and money on a sting, only to find out that oops, they were wrong and there aren't any drugs or whatever--don't get me started on drug laws--but they can't go home empty handed because it might leak to the papers, so they comb every inch of the place looking for any violations they can find, essentially punishing innocent people for their mistake. </p> <p>Here's a link to a lawyer's website where he talks about some of our ridiculous laws in the form of a comic: <a href="http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=1008" rel="nofollow">http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=1008</a></p> <p>As long as we have as many unjust laws on the books as we do, I want zero part in possibly helping convict people of those so called crimes. And that definitely includes victimless crimes like marijuana possession, prostitution, gambling, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2819051 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 20:31:05 +0000 DesertDreams88 2819051@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am very borderline about doing a DNA test for the reason of future health insurance information and some kind of weird tracking. </p> <p>But I am so curious about my DNA both for health reasons and family trees! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818987 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:56:13 +0000 psw27 2818987@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@kiddosc: I guess my feeling is that I don't want to willfully provide DNA for a database that could be used against me or my family in any sort of way. I'm not much of a government conspiracy theorist but there is something about the government having my DNA that creeps me out. I guess I imagine a situation where they wanted to frame me for a crime or wanted to discriminate against me based on what they know about my DNA. It's all very fictitious of course, but it's this concept of big brother is watching everything we do. I wouldn't willfully hand over a vial of my blood to the government and handing over my DNA sample is basically the same! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818983 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:50:10 +0000 kiddosc 2818983@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@psw27: I'm interested in your thoughts on why you wouldn't want to help a crime data base with your DNA... even in this roundabout sort of way. I know several people that feel this way and I'm just interested in hearing what you base that feeling on, not trying to be confrontational :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818963 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:08:10 +0000 periwinklebee 2818963@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Silva: @kiddosc: Interesting, thanks! </p> <p>To be safe I would still like to keep my information private, as I just don't trust the government to continue to regulate in our best interest with this one... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818961 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:03:59 +0000 psw27 2818961@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is fascinating! I've definitely heard of some interesting stories coming out of these websites. I think that a lot of adults are now finding out they had half siblings around that no one talked about. I have never done it, and I probably never will. I agree with others, insurance companies scare me more than law enforcement! But I'm also not interested in voluntarily helping the crime database with my DNA. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818960 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:03:10 +0000 Silva 2818960@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. i just finished "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" last week so the timing was pretty wild for me. She discusses this approach in the book a little.<br /> I've read in some places that they had a warrant, but I'm not sure how a warrant could be that vague- they were looking for a familial match for a sample? I have to trust they did it by the book, but the press conference seemed mighty political, so the cynic in me thinks this will become part of an agenda to push for less DNA privacy.</p> <p>I think its a slippery slope. Its a lot like debates around technology privacy, honestly. Some people say if you aren't doing anything wrong it doesn't matter, but giving the government the right to go on fishing expeditions with our most private of information (the makeup of our cells!) is a pretty big deal with potentially serious consequences.</p> <p>that said- holy cow I can't believe they caught him. I was CERTAIN that he had died/ would die before they caught him. Can you IMAGINE the way it felt when they realized they had a 100% match on the sample?! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818958 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:59:13 +0000 kiddosc 2818958@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: It's currently illegal for health insurance companies to use genetic information against you. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) 
makes 
it against 
the 
law
 for 
health 
insurers 
to 
request,
 require,
 or
 use 
genetic 
information
 to
 make
 decisions 
about:<br /> • Your
 eligibility 
for 
health 
insurance
<br /> • Your 
health 
insurance
 premium, 
contribution 
amounts, 
or
coverage 
terms</p> <p>But it's true that there's no guarantee this regulation would stand forever. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818956 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:58:24 +0000 Silva 2818956@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: I was under the impression that the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits insurance companies from discriminating based on genetic mutations. but it doesn't apply to life insurance policies, which is problematic. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818955 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:56:00 +0000 periwinklebee 2818955@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bhbee: it's already messed up enough, I can't even imagine once they had a really good predictor of just how sick you, your kids, your future kids... will be over your lifetime and could price this in... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818953 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:54:55 +0000 looch 2818953@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: That's a good point...and maybe it's the push we need in this country to make changes to the for profit health insurance system. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818952 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:53:49 +0000 bhbee 2818952@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: ooh that’s a scary one. I am way more afraid of insurance companies than law enforcement :shocked: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818951 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:50:35 +0000 periwinklebee 2818951@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm not concerned about law enforcement but about health insurance accessing this information. There's already a huge interested in the insurance industry in using genetic data - a good friend has expertise in genomics and has been offered a lot of money by various insurance companies to come work for them, but won't on ethical grounds. I don't know that they could legally use this info now, but if there's huge money to be had in it - which there is - I don't trust that the regulatory structure wouldn't change. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818949 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:37:50 +0000 kiddosc 2818949@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Boopers: Wow, that's an amazing family story! </p> <p>I agree that this all sounds like it's on the straight and narrow and something that we may begin to see more often. I think there are some people who would be hesitant to contribute to these types of databases knowing they can be accessed by law enforcement though. I'm typically of the mindset that I have nothing to hide, but I know not everyone thinks that way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818944 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:29:04 +0000 Boopers 2818944@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We actually found a family member we didn’t know about through a DNA site. He was born before my dad (the oldest child) and given up for adoption. No one knew anything about him or that my grandma kept this huge secret until him and my sister found each other as a match. He has hereditary heart defect and he was trying to find biological family for health information. My sister was able to help him find members of the other side of his biological family from the same DNA website. I find it incredibly fascinating!</p> <p>I’m no legal expert, but it sounds like they legally used a DNA website to find a relative to find a lead. It’s pretty genius in my opinion and I think it’ll become more common practice. There is no way that family member whose DNA was already in the site could have known they were related to a serial killer/rapist. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/geneology-sites-used-for-criminal-investigations#post-2818936 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:05:31 +0000 kiddosc 2818936@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The Golden State Killer case, popularized by Michelle McNamara's (Patton Oswalt's late wife) recent book, was cracked wide open this week when they arrested a suspect who was identified by entering the perpetrator's DNA into a genealogy database and identifying a relative who had submitted their DNA into the database. </p> <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/golden-state-killer.html?smid=fb-nytimes&#038;smtyp=cur" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/golden-state-killer.html?smid=fb-nytimes&#038;smtyp=cur</a></p> <p>For those that can't read the article, the basic summary is that police entered the DNA profile of a serial rapist/murderer into a Genealogy website (similar to Ancestry). They found someone in the database, who had willingly submitted their DNA to the database for genealogy purposes, who was genetically a relative of the perpetrator and then looked at that relatives family to find a male in the correct age range and with ties to the crime area. Once they identified a potential match, they followed that suspect around until he left his DNA in a public domain (think throwing away a soda can at a park) and then picked up the DNA and matched it to the crime scene DNA. Meaning they had finally found their man after decades. </p> <p>I think this is a fascinating use of DNA technology and something that the killer never could have imagined when he committed his crimes in the 70s and 80s. It's also worth adding that this genealogy database allows this type of search, but it doesn't seem like all of them do. </p> <p>What are people's thoughts on this? Do you have concerns about new uses of DNA technology? </p>