The short answer is: probably, depending on your life history. If you were born in a U.S. hospital, served in the military, were arrested for certain crimes, or crossed the border as a noncitizen, there’s a good chance a government agency has a biological sample or a DNA profile linked to your identity. The specifics vary widely based on which pathway applies to you.
Newborn Blood Spot Screening
This is the most common way the government ends up with your DNA, and most people have no idea it happened. Nearly every baby born in the United States gets a heel prick within days of birth. A few drops of blood are collected on a card and tested for dozens of serious conditions like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis. That part is straightforward public health screening. What surprises people is what happens to those blood spot cards afterward.
Many states keep the leftover samples long after screening is complete. About 40% of state public health laboratories retain dried blood spots for at least one year, and some store them indefinitely. These residual samples have been used for quality assurance, biomedical research, and in some cases, forensic identification. In four states (California, Maine, Utah, and Washington), your blood spot card legally becomes state property.
This has already sparked legal battles. In Texas, five families sued the state health department for storing blood spots indefinitely and using them for undisclosed research without parental permission. The settlement forced Texas to destroy 5 million stored samples. It also came to light that the Texas program had quietly given 800 blood spot cards to a military forensics laboratory. In Minnesota, families sued under the state’s Genetic Privacy Act, arguing that keeping samples without explicit consent violated their rights.
Only 20 states have laws that directly address what happens to residual blood spots. Eighteen states have no legislation on the topic at all. If you want your child’s sample destroyed, only five states (Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington) explicitly allow parents to request that. Seven states offer some form of opt-out. One state, Mississippi, prohibits using blood spots for research entirely.
The Criminal DNA Database
CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, is the largest forensic DNA database in the country. All 50 states require convicted offenders of certain crimes to submit a DNA sample. But conviction isn’t the only trigger. The federal government and 31 states have passed laws authorizing DNA collection at the point of arrest, before any conviction occurs. Since January 2009, any adult arrested for a federal crime must provide a DNA sample.
Newer technology is accelerating this process. Rapid DNA machines, now approved for use in booking stations, can generate a DNA profile and search it against unsolved crimes in CODIS within 24 hours of arrest. The FBI has approved specific devices for this purpose, and participating law enforcement agencies can upload profiles directly during the booking process alongside fingerprint capture.
If you’re arrested and your charges are later dismissed, you’re acquitted, or no charges are filed within the applicable time period, your profile is supposed to be removed from the national index. But expungement isn’t automatic. The participating laboratory needs a certified copy of a final court order before it will remove your record. State databases operate under their own rules, so the process and timeline for removal vary depending on where you live.
Military Service Members
Every person who serves in the U.S. military has a blood sample stored in the Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Samples for the Identification of Remains. The program has been running since 1992, and the repository holds 7.3 million blood stain cards. Its stated purpose is straightforward: if a service member becomes a casualty or goes missing and remains are recovered, the stored DNA provides a reference for positive identification. The repository has been used to identify over 5,000 military and civilian fatalities from conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other operations.
Immigration and Border Encounters
Federal law requires DNA collection from certain noncitizens who are detained, as well as people arrested or facing federal criminal charges at the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs a nationwide DNA collection program. In fiscal year 2022, CBP encountered nearly 1.7 million individuals under immigration enforcement authority and collected DNA samples from about 634,000 of them, roughly 37%. A Government Accountability Office report found that CBP lacks good data on why samples aren’t collected from the remaining individuals, raising questions about how consistently the program operates.
Voluntary Research Programs
Some people hand their DNA to the government willingly. The NIH’s All of Us research program, for example, collects genetic samples from participants to build a massive health database. The program holds Certificates of Confidentiality from the federal government, which it says it would use to fight legal demands like subpoenas that could identify participants. Researchers who access the data must agree not to attempt to re-identify anyone.
Genetic Genealogy and Consumer DNA Tests
Even if you’ve never given DNA to the government directly, law enforcement may still be able to find you through a relative’s consumer DNA test. Three genetic genealogy platforms currently allow law enforcement access: GEDmatch PRO, FamilyTreeDNA, and a nonprofit called DNA Justice. Larger companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA do not voluntarily open their databases to police, though they may comply with valid court orders.
The Department of Justice has an interim policy governing when investigators can use this technique. It’s restricted to unsolved violent crimes (primarily homicides and sexual offenses) or identification of suspected homicide victims, and only after the forensic profile has already been run through CODIS without producing a match. Other reasonable investigative leads must also be exhausted first. The key reality, though, is that a single relative who opts in to law enforcement searching is enough to potentially identify you, even if you’ve never taken a DNA test yourself.
What Legal Protections Exist
The main federal law people point to is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, known as GINA. It prohibits the use of genetic information to discriminate in employment and health insurance. That’s it. GINA does not cover law enforcement use, forensic databases, life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance. It won’t stop police from collecting your DNA upon arrest, and it won’t prevent a genealogy search from surfacing your family connections.
State laws fill some gaps but create a patchwork. Some states require consent before blood spots are used for research. Some states allow you to request expungement of an arrestee DNA profile. But no single federal law gives you a comprehensive right to know whether the government holds your DNA, or a universal mechanism to get it deleted. The protections that do exist tend to be narrow, applying to one specific database or one specific context, and they often require you to take active steps (like obtaining a court order) rather than granting rights automatically.