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Investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) is solving crimes that once seemed unsolvable. This new investigative technique can provide long-awaited answers to victims and families. It can enhance public safety, hold offenders to account for serious crimes, and in some cases, exonerate the wrongfully convicted.
However, without clear rules or laws, there’s a real chance that IGG could compromise the privacy of innocent individuals — people can get drawn into a criminal investigation merely because they share DNA with someone else. If individuals — and sometimes entire communities — unknowingly become subject to heightened scrutiny by law-enforcement without any reasonable suspicion, public trust can quickly begin to erode.
That’s why my office developed Guardrails for Police Use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy in Ontario. These guardrails are not about limiting important police work. They’re meant to help guide it. Until there are clear laws governing police use of IGG, these practical guardrails can help ensure it’s used in a way that respects privacy, maintains public trust, and avoids unintended harm to individuals and groups.
Collaboration is a cornerstone of our office. In keeping with this core value, we consulted with a wide range of experts and organizations in the development of these guardrails. We engaged with police services, government, civil society, academics, lawyers, scientific experts, and First Nations technology leaders, as well as privacy, human rights, and victims’ rights regulators, to hear their views.
The guardrails are meant to support police in meeting their legal obligations, protecting privacy, and informing decision-making about when and how to use IGG responsibly. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring responsible use of IGG to maintain the public’s trust in police use of this new technology.
The guardrails cover a range of privacy risks, requirements, and best practices. As examples, we recommend that police services:
• Only collect, use, retain, and disclose DNA information in a manner that is proportionate and reasonably necessary to significantly advance a criminal investigation. IGG should not be used when other less privacy-intrusive means are available. IGG should be narrow in scope and only be used to investigate the most serious criminal offences, and only when other investigative means have been tried and failed.
• Conduct a program-level privacy impact assessment before any IGG pilot project, program or initiative is launched to address and mitigate potential privacy and security risks up front. Other accountability measures include robust IGG governance frameworks with appropriate policies and procedures, privacy-specific training, regular compliance audits and program reviews — all of which should be subject to effective oversight by relevant supervisory authorities. In addition, police should provide after-the-fact notice, at the appropriate time, to persons whose DNA has been used during an IGG-related investigation.
• Avoid using personal information from any third party that may have collected, compiled, or used the information contrary to law. When engaging with third party service providers, police remain ultimately accountable for the use of IGG. They must carry out the necessary due diligence to address access, privacy, and security requirements throughout the procurement process. Consult our guidance on third party contracting to learn more.
• Only collect DNA surreptitiously once you are satisfied that, at a minimum, you have reasonable grounds to suspect that the person of interest is connected to the serious criminal offence under investigation. DNA or DNA-derived information should be retained for no longer than necessary to fulfil the purposes of the investigation and related court proceedings. Such information, including DNA samples themselves, should be permanently destroyed in respect of all excluded persons of interest.
• Protect DNA and DNA-derived information with appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to ensure its security, integrity, and confidentiality.
• Provide information about your IGG program to the public, including details about how DNA information is collected, used, retained, disclosed, and destroyed. This information should be in plain language, current, and include a contact from your police service who can answer questions from the public. Police should also publish meaningful annual statistics on the effectiveness and appropriateness of their IGG programs.
• To avoid unintended consequences and potential harms, particularly for Indigenous and marginalized communities, public consultation is essential. Meaningful consultations allow for diverse perspectives to be heard and should involve discussions on the intended use of IGG by your police service and how privacy and human rights will be protected.
• Develop ethical guidelines to guide your interactions with affected relatives in a manner that is historically and culturally sensitive. Police should avoid needlessly or inadvertently disclosing sensitive personal information about a family member or revealing biological relations between persons that may not otherwise be known.
We all want safer communities, and we want to see justice done for those impacted by crime. But solving crimes must not come at the expense of fundamental privacy and human rights. With a well-designed IGG program, public safety, privacy, and public trust can go hand in hand. The twelve IGG guardrails are a useful and practical tool demonstrating a modern, effective approach to implementing this next-generation law enforcement technology.
If you have questions about the IPC’s IGG guardrails, or are considering an IGG program, you can contact us at policy.consultations@ipc.on.ca.
Our website offers practical guidance and resources tailored for law enforcement. And our Info Matters podcast episode on the use of IGG is a must listen if you’d like to learn more about this topic.
Patricia Kosseim is the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Prior to this role, she has worked in the area of access and privacy law as a lawyer, policy-maker and regulator. Her experiences have spanned the public, private, and health sectors and across several jurisdictions. She holds business and law degrees from McGill University, and a Master’s Degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College, University of London. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Barreau du Québec.
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