Could Having Your DNA Tested Land You in Court?

The story of filmmaker Michael Usry’s arrest seems like it could have come straight from an episode of CSI. A New Orleans-based filmmaker known for his violent, murder-centered films, he was suspected of the 1996 murder of a young woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho. In early 2015, using DNA his father submitted to a private genetics company owned by Ancestry.com, police narrowed down on the filmmaker. Usry submitted his DNA to authorities and when it didn't match, he was found innocent. However, as Wired reports in an article today, the method the cops used to narrow down on Usry--employing private genetics companies' databases to find a suspect--brings to the forefront the already heightened concerns over the use and privacy laws of commercial DNA testing through companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe.

Back in 1996, a suspect was convicted of the murder soon after it took place. However, amid concerns that the wrong man was convicted, the police turned to a controversial technique known as familial searching, which searches a DNA database to look for close...