Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo DNA test testing site website
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Here’s How DNA Testing and Genealogy Websites Led to the Arrest of the Original Nightstalker Golden State Killer Suspect Joseph DeAngelo

We’ve warned for years that sites where you can get your DNA tested, such as 23andMe.com and Ancestry.com, are fertile ground for law enforcement. And while you may have heard that the Golden State Killer (originally dubbed the East Area Rapist) was tracked through GEDmatch.com, where people only upload the DNA test results that they get elsewhere, such as from 23andMe or Ancestry, make no mistake, law enforcement have also been searching those two sites.

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Law Enforcement is Searching Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA Databases

We’ve always said that submitting your DNA for DNA analysis at services like 23andMe, and AncestryDNA by Ancestry.com, is a bad idea, because regardless of what ‘good’ can come from it, the potential for bad is just too great. Having unknown actors have access to your DNA information is a violation of privacy of the most basic, and intimate, kind. Sadly, we were right. Law enforcement agencies are now using what is known as “familial DNA search” to go on DNA fishing expeditions, searching for near matches to DNA found at a crime scene.

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How to Cancel a Free Ancestry.com Account (It Shouldn’t be This Hard!)

If you have a free Ancestry.com account – i.e. a “Registered Guest” Ancestry.com account, and are trying to cancel it (because, for example, they don’t honor your “don’t send me any email” settings), you may find that it seems that you are unable to cancel it. That’s because YOU CAN’T. So we are going to tell you what you need to do.