I wonder what percentage of our DNA is in a govt database now. 80 or 90 %?
Good question, but since I am totally cynical of the government, maybe it’s possible, that every time you have normal blood work done, for your annual physical, they probably do your DNA. I am sure that would probably be illegal, but since when does the government worry about legalities? It’s for the children, is what they would say. /s
With the gov’t? Probably less than 1-percent (mostly either criminals, or GI’s who have no choice but to ‘share’).
The bulk of DNA databases belong to private companies (23andme is a good example).
In this case, they found a cousin who came somewhat close to being a match. The rest was just groundwork to establish if he had any member of the family who might have a criminal record.
It’s scary because there are different search correlations.
Medical and Ancestral.
I don’t want to be denied medical care or insurance because somebody found some risk correlation with one of my siblings.
The number of people who have done DNA are reaching the point that most criminals can probably be found through their relatives. My wife found her father and mother through 2nd cousins on Ancestry, and then her brother did the same thing. (They were adopted.) It worked out, but for someone who never wanted to be found, it could be a problem. For criminals, a big problem.