Context: The Interpol has launched a new global database named “I-Familia” to identify missing persons through family DNA and help the police solve cold cases in member countries.

Key Points

• DNA kinship matching is used mostly in cases where a direct sample of the missing person is not available. 
• “I-Familia is the first global database to automatically control for such differences without requiring knowledge of the missing person’s genetic ancestry and provide standardised guidelines on what constitutes a match.
• More than 12,000 active Yellow Notices, which are international police alerts for missing persons, had been issued by the Interpol by late 2020.

I-Familia has three components

• a dedicated global database to host the DNA profiles provided by relatives, held separately from any criminal data; 
• DNA matching software called Bonaparte, developed by Dutch company Smart Research; 
• and interpretation guidelines developed by Interpol.

As per Interpol "the processing of DNA data was carried out via secure communication channels" and “Family members must give their consent for their data to be used for international searching".