Privacy and Ethics

[Tenn4ever]

What Prairielad posted. Their match results are the same as you or I would get with our test results.

If they want more information than that. They have to obtain a court order, or use the available contact information the match provided.

If you have opted out law enforcement is unable to see a match to you.

In a perfect world saying we want our DNA used to find criminals makes sense but as someone who has been entrusted with many kits that doesn't work when your testers don't respond to your emails to opt out. The only option is to opt out for them. AND that's the problem. The default should be opt out not opt in. If a person wants their DNA used to track criminals they should opt in for that and that is great if that is what they want.

The problem is that Family Tree has colluded with law enforcement. They gave in to them because law enforcement knows that if the default is opt out there will not be near as many DNA accounts to match to. Just like the situation is now where members don't go to their accounts and privacy settings and opt out, members would not go to their privacy settings and opt in. This would be a great loss to law enforcement. I'M DISAPPOINTED IN FAMILY TREE THAT THEY CAVED AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR MEMBERS AND PRIVACY.

I've known first hand who was falsely accused of a crime even though it was a low class misdemeanor. The person was completely exonerated but that didn't repair his reputation. This is the kind of thing that could happen to your relatives.

[bartarl260]

In this case, it creates the odd paradox where "the better protection" in this instance may now be to get tested & opt-in for matching and get your relatives to do the same. Better to have a "mostly" non-invasive match result ping on FTDNA than to have them ping your cousin or sibling as "a close match" and cause them to start getting court orders to find out you don't match.