Beginning on Oct. 1, investigators working on Maryland cases will need a judge’s signoff before using the method, in which a “profile” of thousands of DNA markers from a crime scene is uploaded to genealogy websites to find relatives of the culprit. The new law, sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, also dictates that the technique be used only for serious crimes, such as murder and sexual assault. And it states that investigators may only use websites with strict policies around user consent.
To me that reads that the court order allows the police to use the genealogy database. For example:
I am curious about my genes
I submit my DNA for sequencing
Some years later some cousin rapes and murders someone, dumps the body
Police find body, find unknown DNA
Police get court order in murder case
Police force genealogy database to scan for matching DNA
Genealogy database gives police my name
Police show up at my door, start asking if I have any relatives that "kinda like to rape people"
Police hang out behind my house, steal the pizza crust from my trash bin for further DNA tests
Is that not a plausible scenario? What in the language of the law used by the NYT article makes you think this is disallowed? And remember, this is for Maryland only. The other 49 states can obtain a court order for any reason, be it murder or subway fare dodging.
it’s a program you need to opt in to
Again, not what privacy advocates from the NYT article say:
Currently, customers of GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA are given a choice about whether to participate in these searches. But the companies provide little information about what those searches entail, and the opt-in settings are turned on by default.
I.e. more like opt-out than opt-in, and again, irrelevant in case of a court order.