"Like fingerprints in an earlier age, finding a DNA match is now considered the gold standard for criminal prosecutions in America. But the Golden State Killer case puts new attention on how samples are used and obtained in addition to what they tell us. “This isn’t really a DNA story,” Elizabeth Joh, a UC Davis law professor who studies the Fourth Amendment and technology, told me. “It’s a story about data.”
She added that the case underscored how Americans may not realize how new technologies can be used against them. “Do you realize, for example, that when you upload your DNA, you’re potentially becoming a genetic informant on the rest of your family?” she explained. “And then if that’s the case, what if you’re the person who didn’t personally upload the DNA, but you discover that your family member has done that?”"