You have enforceable property rights to your home, investments, artwork, and even your family pet. But when it comes to your DNA—the most intimate of all your personal possessions—all bets are off.

Today, you have almost no legal control over the unauthorized taking and use of your DNA, which can be easily extracted from the hair or saliva you leave behind at restaurants, stores, salons or just about everywhere else. You are mistaken if you think there are state or federal laws to protect your most personal possession. While Florida makes the unauthorized analysis of your DNA a misdemeanor, there are no reported cases evidencing enforcement of the law, and while unauthorized analysis of your DNA may be a misdemeanor, Florida does not prohibit the unauthorized taking of your DNA in the first place.