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A US company is the first to face penalties under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), a law that protects the privacy of genetic information. On 22 June, a federal court jury in Georgia awarded US$2.25 million to two men whose employer tested their DNA, seeking to identify who had repeatedly left faeces in one of its warehouses.

The firm, Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services, a grocery distributor in Atlanta, Georgia, asked employees Jack Lowe and Dennis Reynolds to give cheek swabs in 2012. Atlas sent their DNA to a lab for genetic comparison with the offending faecal matter. The tests showed that Lowe and Reynolds’ DNA was not a match.

In 2013, the workers sued Atlas. The case, nicknamed the 'mystery of the devious defecator' by US district court judge Amy Totenberg, is the first brought under GINA to go to trial. Here, Nature explains why the ruling matters.

Why is a law such as GINA necessary?

People are afraid that their DNA could be used against them by employers or insurance companies, says Amanda Farahany, the...