Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Re-identification of genomic data using long range familial searches

Yaniv Erlich, Tal Shor, Shai Carmi, Itsik Pe’er
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/350231
Yaniv Erlich
1MyHeritage, Or Yehuda 6037606, Israel.
2Department of Computer Science, Fu Foundation School of Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
3Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2), Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
4New York Genome Center, New York, NY 10013, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: erlichya@gmail.com
Tal Shor
1MyHeritage, Or Yehuda 6037606, Israel.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Shai Carmi
5Braun School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Itsik Pe’er
2Department of Computer Science, Fu Foundation School of Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
3Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2), Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Consumer genomics databases reached the scale of millions of individuals. Recently, law enforcement investigators have started to exploit some of these databases to find distant familial relatives, which can lead to a complete re-identification. Here, we leveraged genomic data of 600,000 individuals tested with consumer genomics to investigate the power of such long-range familial searches. We project that half of the searches with European-descent individuals will result with a third cousin or closer match and will provide a search space small enough to permit re-identification using common demographic identifiers. Moreover, in the near future, virtually any European-descent US person could be implicated by this technique. We propose a potential mitigation strategy based on cryptographic signature that can resolve the issue and discuss policy implications to human subject research.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted June 19, 2018.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Re-identification of genomic data using long range familial searches
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Re-identification of genomic data using long range familial searches
Yaniv Erlich, Tal Shor, Shai Carmi, Itsik Pe’er
bioRxiv 350231; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/350231
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Re-identification of genomic data using long range familial searches
Yaniv Erlich, Tal Shor, Shai Carmi, Itsik Pe’er
bioRxiv 350231; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/350231

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Genomics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4672)
  • Biochemistry (10338)
  • Bioengineering (7657)
  • Bioinformatics (26296)
  • Biophysics (13500)
  • Cancer Biology (10670)
  • Cell Biology (15412)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8487)
  • Ecology (12805)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16826)
  • Genetics (11382)
  • Genomics (15467)
  • Immunology (10599)
  • Microbiology (25166)
  • Molecular Biology (10203)
  • Neuroscience (54382)
  • Paleontology (399)
  • Pathology (1665)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2889)
  • Physiology (4334)
  • Plant Biology (9235)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1586)
  • Synthetic Biology (2554)
  • Systems Biology (6772)
  • Zoology (1461)