Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Privacy Fears Over UK DNA database

Posted by michael on from the stunning-realization dept.

jukal writes "An article at BBC about the UK's DNA database as a privacy threat. 'More than 1.5 million DNA profiles are now held on the £187m National DNA Database and the target is to have about three million profiles stored by April 2004. '... this has alarmed the inventor of DNA fingerprinting (Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys), who has now 'launched an outspoken attack on the way the genetic profiles of suspects in the UK who have been cleared of any crime are still stored by the authorities'."

2 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds like nuclear physicists... by dotslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Supposedly, Einstein said after the first tests, when he saw the destructive power of the bomb: "The only things infinite are the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe".

    The key difference is, of course, that they were building a bomb with no possible "peaceful uses", whereas this guy was building a tools that could have many different positive uses.

  2. Nope by MutantEnemy · · Score: 2, Insightful
    No. If DNA from the original crime scene is still available, then it should always be possible to check it against the DNA of an alleged suspect (or even a convicted suspect, in the case of an appeal). The database doesn't help in any way.

    --
    Grr! Arg!