Vast DNA Bank Pits Policing Vs. Privacy

schwit1 writes "Today a Washington Post story discusses the vast U.S. bank of genetic material it has gathered over the last few years. Already home to the genetic information of almost 3 Million Americans, the database grows by 80,000 citizens a month." From the article: "'This is the single best way to catch bad guys and keep them off the street,' said Chris Asplen, a lawyer with the Washington firm Smith Alling Lane and former executive director of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. 'When it's applied to everybody, it is fair, and frankly you wouldn't even know it was going on.'"

Comments

Re:Frightening

[TubeSteak]

I have never been indicted nor found guilty of any crime and as such there is no reason for the government to retain such information.

EXACTLY.

The problem with a DNA database is that everytime they run a search against it, everyone in the database is a suspect.

"Blah blah blah it's no different than fingerprints blah blah blah"

You're wrong. It's nothing like fingerprints. My fingerprints are unique.

With DNA, they can get a partial match based on your relatives. Ontop of that, DNA matching isn't always all that accurate. You can read a lengthy book excerpt that goes in depth.

DNA evidence isn't always all the prosecutors make it out to be.

Finger prints harder to fake

[ebuck]

Finger prints are very hard to fake. Sure, you COULD do it, but DNA is designed to facilitate replication.

A few dollars and a PCR machine, and there's enough DNA to "taint" anything I want. If I already have the DNA, I can frame someone with DNA "evidence" and the current miseducated jury will proclaim the 100% match to be 100% proof.

So you should be worried about databases of DNA. There's no worry about using the DNA itself, just the governmental agencies posessing it. If a court orders I give a DNA sample to test against existing evidence, I can't see the easy ability for abuse (I'm not considering the self-incrimination angle.)

A database is a much different matter.

    Looks like Mr. John Doe has finally gone too far. Pull his DNA file, duplicate it in mass, and
    spread it around the next dead homeless person you find. Who knew he was socially unbalanced and
    liked to kill homeless people? Well, those political activists were always a strange bunch! A
    few years in prison will help him sort is out.

When did it become appropriate for the government to own a piece of you? A fingerprint is an external feature, but DNA is a part of you. Ceratinly it will be put to noble uses, but like anything that is available, sooner or later it will also be put to much less than noble uses. That's just human nature.

Re:Bad guys

[Nutria]

So then you agree that giant databases that increase the incidence of wrongful accusations disproportionately affect the poor?

Any "thing" that requires more money

• disproportionately affect the poor
  
• raises the bar on what is considered "poor"
  
• makes more poor people

Now, we just have to test the validity of the assertion that giant databases increase the incidence of wrongful accusations.