By: Kayla Stephensen

Recent developments in DNA technology bring new ethical debates to the table. The arresting of the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, made many users of popular genetics sites worried. The police made a false profile on GEDmatch with DNA from one of the crime scenes and found a match on the site. The co-founders insisted that the company was not handing out data; the law enforcement had found it on their own.

On these genetics sites, individuals can create “trees” until an overlapping tree is found and can be incorporated. It is definitely helpful to find ancestors and identify relationships between people. To sign up, an email or other form of identification can be used. The questions must be asked though, what can be done with the permission of the companies or on the down-low?