The owner of the GEDmatch website tells a Florida television station that he may start charging law enforcement agencies a fee to use the site.
Officials have turned to GEDmatch for a number of genetic genealogy investigations, including ones that have lead to arrests as in the Golden State Killer case and, earlier this week, in a Daytona Beach serial killer case, CBS12 reports. This use of GEDmatch by law enforcement has raised privacy concerns, which led the site to first change its terms and conditions to allow law enforcement to upload DNA from homicide or sexual assault investigations, or from unidentified human remains. It this past May again changed its terms to opt its users out of being part of law enforcement searches, though users can choose to opt in.
Curtis Rogers, who co-founded the site, tells CBS12 that these searches find suspects through their family members. "We have yet to find any serial killer that has put their information on our site," he says. "I don't think there will be one. No, it's through their relatives."
He adds that though law enforcement can currently use the site for free, he is considering charging a fee, saying another site charges hundreds of dollars, according to CBS12.