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Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried

Posted on August 1, 2020 by Dissent

Heather Murphy reports that a data security incident involving GEDmatch has people worried. GEDmatch already had privacy advocates worried because of the data it has shared with law enforcement. Now there was a new reason for concern…..

The peculiar matches began early on a Sunday morning. Across the world, genealogists found that they had numerous new relatives on GEDmatch, a website known for its role in helping crack the Golden State Killer case.

New relatives are typically cause for celebration among genealogists. But upon close inspection, experienced users noticed that some of the new relatives seemed to be the DNA equivalent of a Twitter bot or a Match.com scammer; the DNA did things that actual people’s DNA should not be able to do.

Read more on The New York Times.

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