Your DNA and the FBI

[JoJo]

 "FamilytreeDNA" has been giving the FBI access to its files, they admitted it and haven't apologized for breaking it's promise not to sell it.
 Are they the only company doing this? Having your DNA tested is the new rage I would be awe full cautious. 

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/extensive-privacy-violation-an-at-home-dna-company-admits-to-giving-dna-to-the-fbi_02052019

The at-home DNA testing company, FamilyTreeDNA has admitted to giving DNA samples to the F.B.I. (Federal Bureau of Investigation.) Although the company apologized for failing to disclose the fact that they were sharing DNA with the F.B.I., customers are still rightfully angry at the privacy violations and abuse.

As the government attempts to track and treat every single citizen as a criminal, they use “the greater good” as an excuse to force at home DNA companies to give them samples from people.  If it’s to solve a murder, it’s ok, right?  Not if you want privacy and seek to protect the privacy rights of others, it’s not.

FamilyTreeDNA was caught in a bold lie proving they don’t care about your privacy. According to the New York Times, in the booming business of consumer DNA testing and genealogy, FamilyTreeDNA had marketed itself as a leader of consumer privacy and a fierce protector of user data, refusing, unlike some of its competitors, to sell information to third parties. But unbeknown to its users, the Houston-based firm quietly and voluntarily agreed in 2018 to open its database of more than two million records to the F.B.I. and examine DNA samples in its laboratory to identify suspects and victims of unsolved rapes and murders.

Regardless of how the DNA was used, the idea that a private company willingly gave citizens DNA to the government was too much for most. FamilyTreeDNA confirmed that they were violating their own privacy promise on Thursday.  In a report by Buzzfeed News, where the confirmation was first noted, there was a significant backlash among FamilyTreeDNA’s loyal users who felt betrayed and this betrayal ignited yet another debate over privacy and ethical issues with investigators using genealogical sites to solve crimes.

The company’s president, Bennett Greenspan, wrote an email to users on Sunday.  In the email, Greenspan defended the agreement with the F.B.I. but apologized for not revealing it sooner. “I am genuinely sorry for not having handled our communications with you as we should have,” Greenspan wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by The New York Times. “We’ve received an incredible amount of support from those of you who believe this is an opportunity for honest, law-abiding citizens to help catch bad guys and bring closure to devastated families.”

It’s also an absolute privacy violation and non-consensual one at that, especially considering FamilyTreeDNA, who vowed privacy from the getgo, isn’t even apologizing for their bald-faced lie that they are a “leader of consumer privacy and a fierce protector of user data.”

“For the greater good”:
the phrase that always precedes
the greatest evil.”
― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski

   

[pkveazey]

I've been telling people to not do the DNA thing ever since they started advertising. I'd tell them. "Are you dumb enough to pay somebody $25 to tell you what you should already know and then have them either give or sell the information to the government?" It won't be long before they start offering to do the DNA thing for free and then they will get the rest of the dummies to participate. Not me fella. If they want my DNA they will have to follow me around and wait for a hair to fall out or get a Warrant for the sample.

[Nemo]

Won't have to follow me far.  First chance I get I will just use a personal hose and hose off their shoes and bingo, they got what they want.

Nemo

[JohnyMac]

This new DNA testing to me is nothing more than Narcissism. And as Pk expressed, you are giving away your social security number, credit card (s) number, and passport all rolled into one.

[Deathstyle]

I decided against it once I learned that in the fine print of the contract agreement you sign with some of these companies, you allow them to trademark your DNA.