{"id":10186,"date":"2020-02-04T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/about-half-of-americans-are-ok-with-dna-testing-companies-sharing-user-data-with-law-enforcement\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:16:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T06:16:36","slug":"about-half-of-americans-are-ok-with-dna-testing-companies-sharing-user-data-with-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2020\/02\/04\/about-half-of-americans-are-ok-with-dna-testing-companies-sharing-user-data-with-law-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"About half of Americans are OK with DNA testing companies sharing user data with law enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Most<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Unaligned
(alanphillips via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Roughly half of Americans (48%) say it is acceptable for DNA testing companies to share customers\u2019 genetic data with law enforcement agencies to help solve crimes, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted June 3-17, 2019. Fewer \u2013 a third \u2013 say this is unacceptable, while 18% are unsure.<\/p>\n\n

\"Roughly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

These findings come at a time when the use of at-home DNA testing kits has raised concerns<\/a> about whether consumers understand and are comfortable with the use of their data by police. The Department of Justice recently announced<\/a> guidelines allowing federal investigators to use data gathered by commercial DNA testing websites in criminal investigations.<\/p>\n\n

Several mail-in DNA testing services such as AncestryDNA<\/a>, 23andMe<\/a>\u00a0and MyHeritage<\/a> market their products to Americans so they can trace their family history. This survey finds that 16% of Americans have ever used a mail-in DNA testing service like these.<\/p>\n\n

How we did this<\/div>