Re:U.S. police may now be able to access online DNA database...
by pdkl95 on Saturday November 16, 2019 @09:31AM
(#21552797)
> this does not increase that probability very much
That depends[1] strongly on what question you are asking. Matching an unknown sample against a small number of suspects is a very different question than searching a database with millions (or billions) of records. The latter is almost guaranteed[2] to return false positives.
> it massively improves the odds of finding criminals
That's a strong claim that requires equally strong evidence.
That depends[1] strongly on what question you are asking. Matching an unknown sample against a small number of suspects is a very different question than searching a database with millions (or billions) of records. The latter is almost guaranteed[2] to return false positives.
> it massively improves the odds of finding criminals
That's a strong claim that requires equally strong evidence.
[1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/09/dna_matching_... ( http://archive.li/M0SeV )
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem