Tag: myheritage

In light of how easy it is to identify people based on their DNA, researchers suggest ways to protect genetic information.

Genetic information uploaded to a website is now used to help identify criminals. This technique, employed by law enforcement to solve the Golden State Killer case, took genetic material from the crime scene and compared it to publicly available genetic information on third party website GEDmatch.

Inspired by how the Golden State Killer was caught, researchers set out to see just how easy it is to identify individuals by searching databases and finding genetic matches through distant relatives. The paper out today in Science Magazine also proposes a way to protect genetic information.

“We want people to discover their genetic data,” said the paper’s lead author, Yaniv Erlich, a computer scientist at Columbia University and Chief Science Officer at MyHeritage, a genealogy and DNA testing company. “But we have to think about how to keep people safe and prevent issues.”

Commercially available genetic tests are increasingly popular and users can opt to have their information used by genetic testing companies. Companies like 23andMe have used customer’s data for research to discover therapeutics and come up with hypothesis to make medicines. People can also upload their genetic information to third party websites, such as GEDmatch and DNA.Land, to find long-lost relatives.

With these scenarios, the data is used for good but what about the opposite? The situation can easily be switched, which could prove harmful for those who work covert operations (aka spies) and need their identities to remain secret.

Erlich shared that it takes roughly a day and a half to sift through a dataset of 1.28 million individuals to identify a third cousin. This is especially true for people of European descent in the United States. Then, based on sex, age and area of residence it is easy to get down to 40 individuals. At that point, the information can be used as an investigative lead.

To alleviate the situation and protect people, the researchers propose that raw data should be cryptographically encrypted and only those with the right key can view and use the data.

“Things are complicated but with the right strategy and policy we can mitigate the risks,” said Erlich.