When Your DNA is Public Information
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2019
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Aaron Mak learns about how law enforcement is using public genealogy websites to crack cold cases. His guest is Nila Bala, Associate Director of Criminal Justice Policy at the R Street Institute, which is a think tank whose mission is to find solutions to complex policy problems. Bala is also a former public defender. She says while it’s great that criminals are being brought to justice, there should be more rules in place to limit false positives and prevent privacy violations.
After the interview, Shannon Palus joins the show for this week’s edition of Don’t Close My Tabs.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, the show about how technology is changing our lives and our future. I'm Aaron Mack. |
| 0:10.2 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:23.7 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 20th. |
| 0:29.4 | On today's show, we'll talk about how genealogy tests, like 23 and me, are being used to solve cold cases, |
| 0:33.2 | including one in Washington State that recently ended in an actual conviction. |
| 0:36.4 | While it's obviously a good thing to bring murderous justice, |
| 0:42.7 | it's also important to make sure that people who use DNA tests know that their genetic information could be accessed by law enforcement. |
| 0:51.0 | For more on this issue, I'll talk to Nillabala, a former public defender who's now Associate Director of Criminal Justice Policy at the R Street Institute. |
| 0:55.6 | After the interview, my colleague Shannon Paulus will join me for Don't Close My Tabs, |
| 0:58.4 | where we talk about the best things we saw on the web this week. |
| 1:00.2 | That's all coming up on if-then. |
| 1:06.3 | The use of genetic genealogy to solve cold cases first came to prominence last year with the arrest of the Golden State Killer, a serial killer active in the 70s and 80s. |
| 1:11.4 | Investigators matched crime scene evidence against DNA profiles from a genealogy website and |
| 1:16.3 | found a distant family member of the suspect. Since then, use of the forensic technology has |
| 1:21.1 | skyrocketed. It's estimated that a majority of European Americans can now be identified by searching |
| 1:26.0 | through these sites. |
| 1:31.9 | Just last month, a man named William Talbot in Washington State was convicted for two murders committed in 1987. It was the first ever conviction made with the help of genetic genealogy. |
| 1:37.7 | In this case, law enforcement officials use a database called Jedmatch, which is where people can |
| 1:42.2 | use DNA samples to trace family trees. |
| 1:45.2 | Jedmatch gets a lot of its data from DNA tests conducted through Ancestry.com and 23 and Me. |
| 1:50.3 | But people who use these sites don't always know that they could be signing up to be part of a law enforcement database. |
| 1:56.2 | Here to talk through these concerns is Nillabala, Associate Director of Criminal Justice Policy at the R Street Institute, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.