Collecting someone else’s DNA without asking could soon land you in serious legal trouble in California, if a newly introduced bill makes it to the governor’s desk.
The proposal would make it a crime to collect, test, share or sell another person’s DNA without their express consent, with penalties aimed at everything from sneaky swab swaps to trafficking in someone’s genetic data.
Who filed the bill
Assemblymember Tri Ta introduced AB 1727 last week in Sacramento and is listed as the bill’s author on CalMatters. Ta told The Sacramento Bee that taking a person's DNA is a planned and malicious crime, and there should be real consequences.
What AB 1727 would do
AB 1727 would add Section 367 to the Penal Code and set out three degrees of unlawful DNA use. The bill defines “express consent” and makes the intentional sale or transfer of another person’s DNA a first-degree felony. It also lays out lower felony or misdemeanor penalties for unauthorized testing, disclosure or retention of DNA, according to the bill’s legislative text on LegiScan. That page also notes the measure “may be heard in committee March 8.”
Penalties, exemptions and legal context
The bill includes explicit exemptions for law-enforcement evidence, prosecutors, court-ordered testing and academic research. It also would not apply to direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies that comply with California’s Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), which set consent and data-security rules for those firms, as outlined by Quarles & Brady.
California’s move fits into a broader national trend. Florida enacted its Protecting DNA Privacy Act in 2021, a law that imposed criminal penalties for certain misuse of genetic data, as described by Baker Donelson. Around the country, privacy advocates and lawmakers have tightened rules on how consumer genealogy databases can be used.
Tech reporting and civil-liberties groups have also called attention to the double-edged nature of genetic genealogy: powerful for solving crimes, but packed with privacy tradeoffs. For background, see reporting from TechCrunch and analysis from the ACLU.
Next steps
The bill now heads into committee review. If it advances, lawmakers and stakeholders will argue over where to draw the line between genetic privacy and public safety. Should AB 1727 move forward, it could force laboratories, campuses and testing companies across California to rewrite consent forms and overhaul data-handling practices.
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