This Impenetrable Program Is Transforming How Courts Treat DNA Evidence (wired.com)

mirandakatz writes: Probabilistic genotyping is a type of DNA testing that's becoming increasingly popular in courtrooms: It uses complex mathematical formulas to examine the statistical likelihood that a certain genotype comes from one individual over another, and it can work with the subtlest traces of DNA. At Backchannel, Jessica Pishko looks at one company that's caught criminal justice advocates' attention: Cybergenetics, which sells a probabilistic genotyping program called TrueAllele -- and that refuses to reveal its source code. As Pishko notes, some legal experts are arguing that Trueallele revealing its source code 'is necessary in order to properly evaluate the technology. In fact, they say, justice from an unknown algorithm is no justice at all.'

Comments

Revealing != open source

[sinij]

I think it is very reasonable to ask access, covered by NDA, to a source code when such code is used to produce results for criminal prosecution. Unless they can show independent third-party validation of their tool.

We have seen issues with red light cameras, we have seen issues with labs doing drug testing on hair, we have seen child abuse panics from psychology "experts". Both methods and experts have to be open for independent, impartial validation. Otherwise they are no better than a duck test.

Re:There needs to be testing and validation...

[b0s0z0ku]

Disagree. Bad code can cause normal behavior 99% of the time, abnormal 1% of the time. See also, THERAC-25.