When a customer submits a DNA sample to a company, they typically expect to learn about their geneaology and familial background, not to have their genomic information used in a criminal seach. However, police have been doing just that in recent years, using the databases that make direct-to-consumer genomic profiling valuable to help solve a variety of crimes. In a new paper, Professor Jacob Sherkow and his co-authors lay out a case as to why these databases should be covered by the protections of the Fourth Amendment and how technology might allows users to engage in genomic analysis in a secured environment without making such information available to a third party.

The full text of the paper, published in the Southern California Law Review, is available to read in full via SSRN.