According to Verogen, the company that recently purchased GEDmatch, no user data was downloaded or compromised. But two days later, the genealogy website MyHeritage alerted users to a phishing scheme that targeted people who used both MyHeritage and GEDmatch. In a statement posted online, the company said it suspects the attackers may have gleaned the email addresses from GEDmatch.

Verogen has taken GEDmatch down. The company says it is working with a cybersecurity firm to conduct a forensic review and safeguard the site. That may not be enough to recover users’ trust.

Some already see giving law enforcement access to DNA profiles as controversial. As BuzzFeed News reports, this incident could limit those on both sides of the debate. If GEDmatch can’t keep data safe, users may be less likely to create DNA profiles, which could make it harder for police to use the site to solve cold cases. On the other hand, if GEDmatch can’t limit police access, users who may have made a profile on the condition it wouldn’t be used by law enforcement may not create a profile at all. That means less data for genealogists to work with.

We’ve asked Amazon to be more specific about where profiles are available, although they’re already available in full across Android, iOS, 10th-generation or newer Fire tablets, current-gen Apple TV boxes and Chromecast. People in India also have full access on Fire TV devices. You can also use profiles on a basic level (no profile management) with screen-equipped Alexa devices, the Fire TV home screen experience and older Apple TV devices, not to mention most other living room hardware.

The timing couldn’t be more appropriate. With people being urged to stay at home to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Prime Video usage is bound to go up — and that includes driving viewership by family members who might not have used the service much before. Profiles, plus a Cinema hub highlighting movies that were supposed to be in theaters, could encourage more people to give Prime Video a try.

The tool would provide the FBI with access to the full social media profiles of persons-of-interest. That could include information like user IDs, emails, IP addresses and telephone numbers. The tool would also allow the FBI to track people based on location, enable persistent keyword monitoring and provide access to personal social media history. According to the RFP, “The mission-critical exploitation of social media will enable the Bureau to detect, disrupt, and investigate an ever growing diverse range of threats to U.S. National interests.”

But a tool of this nature is likely to raise a few red flags, despite the FBI’s call for “ensuring all privacy and civil liberties compliance requirements are met.” The government doesn’t have the best track record with regard to social media surveillance. Early this year, the ACLU sued the government over its use of social media surveillance of immigrants, and the Trump administration has proposed allowing officials to snoop on the social media accounts of Social Security disability recipients.

The FBI is soliciting contracts for a new social media surveillance tool: https://t.co/3AglNJuote

They’re not beating around the bush in terms of how pervasively they’re monitoring social media content: pic.twitter.com/Zo528lt8Pd

— Hugh Handeyside (@hhandeyside) July 12, 2019

Monitoring social media for threats makes sense, to an extent. And the CIA already invests heavily in its own social network monitoring tools. But there is a danger that a tool like this could be abused by those in power and violate civil liberties.