Colin Sheridan: Taking a DNA test to trace your ancestry can have more sinister outcomes than finding your roots

Someone spitting into a tube to gain insight into their ancestry — and occasionally their health — is giving away highly valuable and tradable information, not just about themselves but their families too

A DNA test does not just reveal where you might come from. It also generates an intensely personal dataset about who you are.

France has long had some of the strictest rules in Europe on consumer genetic testing. For years, it has been illegal there to take a recreational DNA test outside a medical setting. 

Yet a recent political debate reported by Le Monde suggests the country may now be considering something striking: allowing law enforcement to access commercial genealogy databases to solve cold cases.