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Vast DNA Bank Pits Policing Vs. Privacy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-have-nothing-to-hide-right-citizen dept.

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.'"

5 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Bad guys by liangzai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But which people are the bad guys is subject to continuous change. Yesterday it was the rapists and murderers. Today it is the filesharers. Tomorrow it is the occasional book reader.

    1. Re:Bad guys by PatrickThomson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Spending money on a good lawyer should not be a prequisite of being innocent.

      --
      I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
  2. Bad guys? by Oldsmobile · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I find interesting is the term "bad guy". It seems I've been hearing this alot lately. It is like some strange code word, and when that label is applied to someone, they instantly become a target that can be killed, arrested, abused, even tortured without a guilty consciense.

    For instance, in numerous television interviews, troops in Iraq talk about bad guys, cops on the street talk about them, inteligence agency agents talk about them etc.

    I'm kind of worried, is this the new code word for sub human? For unexplaned threat?

    --
    Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
  3. Frightening by l5rfanboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    'When it's applied to everybody, it is fair, and frankly you wouldn't even know it was going on.'

    I would be greatly interested in a link to just who has had their data collected, and their collection methods. I do not want (and I am far from alone in this) the government keeping tabs on me or archiving my personal habits into some large database that will be used against me in the future. 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.

  4. Land of the free! by suv4x4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Requirements for being "land of the free":

    * Take thumbprints, photo and install RFID chip on immigrants (check)
    * Take DNA and thumbs of every citizen (check)
    * Monitor phone calls nation-wide and data transferred over the network (check)
    * Big corporation control the government, government controls the people, people control nothing (check) ... ... ...

    That's some land of the free you got there, guys.