Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.com Revisits Policy For Users

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Since online genealogy services began operating, millions of people have sent them saliva samples in hopes of learning about their family roots and discovering far-flung relatives. These services also appeal to law enforcement authorities, who have used them to solve cold case murders and to investigate crimes like the 2022 killing of four University of Idaho students. Crime-scene DNA submitted to genealogy sites has helped investigators identify suspects and human remains by first identifying relatives.

The use of public records and family-tree building is crucial to this technique, and its main tool has been the genealogy site Ancestry, which has vast amounts of individual DNA profiles and public records. More than 1,400 cases have been solved with the help of so-called genetic genealogy investigations, most of them with help from Ancestry. But a recent step taken by the site is now deterring many police agencies from employing this crime-solving technique.

In August, Ancestry revised the terms and conditions on its site to make it clear that its services were off-limits 'for law enforcement purposes' without a legal order or warrant, which can be hard to get, because of privacy concerns. This followed the addition last year to the terms and conditions that the services could not be used for 'judicial proceedings.' Investigators say the implications are dire and will result in crucial criminal cases slowing or stalling entirely, denying answers to grieving families. 'Everyone who does this work has depended on the records database that Ancestry controls,' said David Gurney, who runs Ramapo College's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center in New Jersey. 'Without it, casework is going to be a lot slower, and there will be some cases that can't be resolved at all.'

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