Genealogy Site GEDMatch Is Now Owned by a Forensic Company
If you’ve studied your family tree with GEDmatch – which used to be a genetic genealogy node – you should know that they were bought by forensic genomics firm Verogen. However, the privacy policy has not changed.
GEDmatch became famous and controversial overnight when investigators used it last year to find relatives of the Golden State killer and track down their suspect. Before that, it was just a site where you could download your data from a DNA testing service like 23andme or Ancestry and see who you might be associated with.
Since then, the two genetic databases have become popular with law enforcement agencies . FamilyTreeDNA transmits data to the FBI , if you do not refuse it; GEDmatch didn’t have a policy at first, but then it was decided that users would have to agree in order for law enforcement to search for their data. (23andme and Ancestry are not the type of databases that allow this search .)
If you have an account with GEDmatch, you will need to decide if you agree to have your details in the company’s database. Sharing your data with law enforcement is still permitted and your previous choices (or lack thereof) are still valid. If you decide that you don’t want to do business with this company at all, there is a button to reject the new terms and delete your details.
Additionally, users report that if you have an email address associated with an EU country, you will have to click on an additional form to confirm that the person whose DNA you are uploading has authorized you to do so.
So has something really changed in terms of privacy? Not yet. Verogen says they will “provide ongoing privacy protection and improve customer experience,” perhaps by creating new tools for the website. Genealogist Leah Larkin told Buzzfeed that the creators of GEDmatch are “probably tired of all the hassle” of having their site at the center of a data privacy controversy, which seems plausible to me.
Recently, a Florida search warrant forced GEDmatch to allow searches across its entire database . Badly. But it looks like Verogen has more resources to challenge attempts to legally access the database, so maybe that’s a good thing? In a press release, they stated, “We are firmly committed to protecting user privacy and will fight any future attempts to access data from those who were not involved.”