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Federal Agencies To Collect Genetic Info
protagoras writes "According to a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, suspects arrested or detained by federal authorities may have their DNA forcibly collected for permanent storage in a central database. The bill is supported by the White House as well, but has not yet gone to the floor for a vote. Current law permits this only for those convicted of a crime. So even though completely innocent, should the Feds decide to detain you for any reason, your genetic data will grace their database beside that from murders, terrorists, and other miscreants." From the article: "The provision, co-sponsored by Kyl and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), does not require the government to automatically remove the DNA data of people who are never convicted. Instead, those arrested or detained would have to petition to have their information removed from the database after their cases were resolved. Privacy advocates are especially concerned about possible abuses such as profiling based on genetic characteristics."
Republicans at it again, always touting "smaller government" while doing the exact opposite...
pathetic...
Cheers,
J
...because of the FBI's recently-announced task force to crack down on "deviant" porn on the Internet. Should you be detained or arrested for such a crime, even if not found guilty, your DNA would be tied on-file to the sexual preferences which caused you to get busted.
Indeed, this further shows how anti-conservative the Republican Party has become. True conservatives would never support legislation that intrudes so terribly into the lives of innocent citizens. It's against the very ideals that a real conservative holds.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
It's like bar codes on your forehead, without the pesky tattoo.
This is the ultimate surveillance tool. It trumps all other forms of ID.
Imagine if Hitler had this capability, now substitute the word "Jews" for any other ethnic minority/oppressed/handicapped people and see how chilling a database like this could be used, but we all know that Hitler and his ideas was just a one off and those kinds of ideas couldnt happen here right ?, right ?
where exactly is America heading ?
I'm not sure if you're an American or not, but if you are, what are you planning to do about this? I mean, at least you're aware of this situation now. That's probably a step ahead of most Americans. But are there any Americans who are actually willing to do something serious about this? And by "serious" I mean not just posting messages of displeasure on various Internet forums or blogs.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Since they're "detaining" people without charging them with crimes now on a fairly large scale, in cases where they don't want to be forced to show their evidence in a public setting, they'd need this loophole to track people who they feel they unfairly have to release for what they feel are political reasons. Seems a consistant, if highly corrupted logic.
Reminds me of the British legal tradition of jailing people without any right to a speedy trial. Seems like we created a constitution in order to get away from that kind of thing.
Ryan Fenton
"I found the best way to avoid false incrimination is to not leave my DNA at crime scenes."
So what will you do when a criminal _does_ leave your DNA at a crime scene?
The issue is not that they are collecting DNA, its that they are retaining *any* identifying information of people that are innocent of any crime.
DNA is just the most concrete form of ID we know of.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That's a good point, and will probably lead to stuff like, "Who cleaned my hairbrush? Where did I leave my toothbrush?"
... thus reducing the risk that the cops will keep looking and find the real perp.
Seriously, it would be trivially easy to leave someone else's DNA at a crime scene, all the better if you know it's someone with a record, so they're liable to be a suspect the moment their name comes up
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
No. Fingerprints let someone know who you are. They can also correlate your physical presence at a scene. No more than that. And the system can be gamed.
A DNA sample potentially lets the holder know how smart you are, what diseases you're prone to, what genetic faults are inevitable, what kind of children you can have, exactly what race(s) you are, what poisons will work best on you, ditto what biologicals will work best on you, what color your eyes are, how strong your bones can get, how your nerves, airways and musculature form... in short, DNA lets the government know way too much. The reason I am convinced that it is way too much is that the government has proven that it will mismanage and break promises about data we allow it to handle. From social security numbers to tax records to the witness protection program, government FUBAR is evident at every turn. It goes beyond the government as well. Because in the final analysis, the government is made of people and most people have a price beyond which they will bend the rules. By extension, if the government has a database that has your DNA in it, you can be darned certain that database will end up (for instance) in the insurance companies hands.
Gaming... entirely possible. Someone gets a sample of your (whatever) and plants it at a crime scene. Now because DNA mismatch is extremely unlikely, you are a major suspect. Sadly, you have no alibi (you didn't know you'd need one and you were out driving around in the rain that night.) Guess what's going to happen to you?
You really think the government will never do anything you won't like with your DNA if you let them have it? I don't have that level of confidence, sorry.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
If we really wanted freedom of choice, we'd need to change the style of voting to something other than winner take all (for more info, Wikipedia is a good place to start).
Yeah, right.