Human Rights Court Calls UK DNA Database a 'Breach of Rights'

psmears writes "Describing a judgment that is likely to rein in the scope of the UK DNA database, where at present the DNA of those arrested by the police is kept permanently (even if the people concerned are never convicted, or even charged), the BBC reports that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that keeping such people's DNA in the database 'could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society.'" Reader megla adds a link to the full text of the judgement.

Comments

Re:Do I mind if the government keeps my DNA on fil

[LingNoi]

Are you kidding me? This is the government that loses data left, right and centre and you don't mind them maintaining your DNA?

Then perhaps you'd like to hear about the case in the US where two men one white, one black both had the same genetic markers in the police database?

or how about when you are called in for a crime you didn't commit like Jill Dando case where they matched the wrong guy's DNA. The evidence was so strong there right? The amount of DNA evidence was almost nothing yet the court was in the mindset of DNA == foolproof.

No one said it better than old Ben Franklin

[DJRumpy]

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin

The insight of those from hundreds of years ago still amazes me.

Wise men, no?

Re:Figures...

[Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS-]

I've been told that in Michigan if you are not convicted you can file to have your fingerprints pulled from the database. I don't know how it works elsewhere.