Interesting article. Thanks, @EdJames.
Indeed it is. I'd heard of some of that, but it was good to see it documented. Especially the part you were interested in: For companies like Ancestry.com and 23&Me, HIPPA does not apply. One is reliant upon the kindness of the strangers running those outfits.
I won't use any of them, because I do not trust the government to not use the data for fishing expeditions. Stories already abound about how LEO has ID'ed "potential suspects" from hits they get from close relatives who fit the search criteria. I would not like the idea of being responsible for my brother or sister being caught up in that, even if they're guilty. (I'm that bad a person.)
To elaborate on something
@bigheadfred wrote upthread: Police will use any tool they can to place you at or near a crime scene they are investigating. Many Detectives work against the normal rules of scientific discovery. They usually ID a potential suspect from the evidence at the crime scene, then search for ways to pin the crime on that person, to the exclusion of evidence that could point to someone else.
Too often, once a Detective thinks he has enough evidence to convict, the attitude becomes "I got my man!" and they won't budge from that paradigm.
I know too many people who trust the Police implicitly. I am not one of them.
ETA: Mrs. Liberty was married to a Homicide Detective, and she has stories about this.
