Privacy and Security Law Blog

Posted by Lance Koonce

As it turns out, had Oedipus been blessed with a good laptop and a secure wifi node instead of those cryptic Oracles (this kind, not that kind), he might have avoided the entire murder/incest/blinding thing.

Today's Washington Post reports that a 15-year-old boy whose mother was artificially inseminated by sperm from an anonymous donor managed to track down the donor using readily available online sources.

Although initially looking only for general genealogical information about his fraternal line, the teen sent in a DNA sample to a an online genetic service; upon comparing the sample with its DNA database, the service returned the names of two individuals with closely matching DNA. Both had a similar last name, and the teen then used the birthplace and birthdate information from the sperm bank to do another search with OmniTrace.com, this time for all men born at that time and place with the particular last name. One individual met the specifications. The donor had been found.

The Post notes that:

While welcomed by advocates of children trying to locate anonymous donors, the case -- apparently the first of its kind -- has raised alarm among sperm banks and some medical ethicists. They are concerned it might start a trend that could violate the privacy of thousands of sperm donors and discourage future ones.

The case has also underscored how the growing number of genetic databases being established by governments, law enforcement agencies, private companies and research organizations could be used in unintended ways, potentially invading personal privacy and raising a thicket of social, ethical and legal questions.

"When you create these databases, you're creating something that has a lot of power -- far beyond what they were originally designed for," said David M.J. Lazer, who studies the legal implications of genetic databases at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "This seems like one of those scenarios."

The Post also notes intriguingly that "the case illustrates that when people put their DNA on a database, it provides information about more than themselves."

Of course, the problem was not really the availability of the DNA information alone, but rather the availability of DNA information combined with other personally identifying information (here, a last name and on the other end, the birthplace and birthdate) that enabled the teen to make the connection. But the case is certainly a strong reminder that when multiple pieces of your identity "puzzle" are available in various public databases, someone may be able to fit those pieces together.