May 2019

 
  I have long advised clients to upload their raw data to GEDMatch, to find matches who have tested with other companies. In the past year, law enforcement officers (including the FBI and state and local police departments) have used some of these databases to solve violent crimes, both cold cases and crimes that happened recently.
   GEDMatch is their primary tool for finding the ancestry of violent criminals and tracing forward to the present to discover the perpetrator. GEDMatch just recently set all their kits to automatically opt-out of Law Enforcement matching. If you want your kit opted-in, you will need to sign in to GEDMatch, read and follow the directions.
   You can read more about this on the following blog posts:

Facing DNA Privacy Concerns Head-On with Informed Consent, by Blaine Bettinger

GedMatch Implements Required Opt-In for Law Enforcement Matching, by Roberta Estes

How a DNA database's new policy is changing police access and could hinder solving cold cases 

The Choice That Really Isn't (how Law Enforcement can work around the kits that are opted out), by Judy Russell

And this statement from CeCe Moore:
I am not interested in debating GEDmatch's decision to go to opt-in and the reasons behind it. I will say that it is easy to sit on one's high horse and pass judgement, arguing semantics, very narrow interpretations, and privacy extremism, when it is not you and your family who are victimized. There are no real victims created by GEDmatch. As always, my focus is on the families who are searching for answers. "Whatever one thinks about this decision, it is inarguable that it is a setback for justice and victims and their families."