378. 23andMe (and You, and Everyone Else)

Freakonomics Radio

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Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

The revolution in home DNA testing is giving consumers important, possibly life-changing information. It’s also building a gigantic database that could lead to medical breakthroughs. But how will you deal with upsetting news? What if your privacy is compromised? And are you prepared to have your DNA monetized? We speak with Anne Wojcicki, founder and C.E.O. of 23andMe.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 2018, police in Sacramento, California arrested a man who had been eluding them for decades.
0:11.1	The Golden State Killer, as he'd been known, was responsible for more than a dozen murders
0:16.5	and 50 rapes.
0:18.6	This morning, new details of the rigorous investigation that Detective Sae brought
0:22.9	down the Golden State Killer more than 40 years after his alleged killing spree began.
0:29.7	Police had uploaded a DNA sample from the suspect to an open source website called Jedmatch.
0:36.6	The site provides, in its words, DNA and genealogical analysis tools for amateur and professional
0:43.0	researchers and genealogists.
0:46.4	We've just learned from multiple law enforcement sources that investigators use genealogy websites
0:51.7	to help link D'Angelo to what was previously the unknown mystery DNA of the attacker.
0:57.7	Jedmatch lets anyone upload raw DNA data from home genetics testing companies like 23andMe
1:04.7	and ancestry.com.
1:06.9	It turned out that at least 24 relatives of the suspect were included in the Jedmatch database.
1:13.8	The police, by cross-referencing the suspect's DNA data against census data and cemetery records,
1:20.4	were able to confirm that they had the right guy.
1:24.1	Police say the 72-year-old appeared surprised when they swarmed his home Tuesday evening.
1:29.4	More than 100 pages of heavily redacted court documents read like a real-life CSI, revealing
1:35.8	that a DNA sample recovered this April sealed the case against him.
1:40.8	How remarkable is that?
1:42.1	But a bunch of civilians just looking to fill out their family trees had inadvertently
1:47.5	crowdsourced the capture of a murder.
1:50.8	But not everybody saw it as remarkable in just that way.
	...

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