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Proposed Bill Would Force Arizonians To Pay $250 To Have Their DNA Added To a Database (gizmodo.com)

technology_dude writes: One by one, thresholds are being crossed where the collection and storage of personal data is accepted as routine. Being recorded by cameras at business locations, in public transportation, in schools, churches, and every other place imaginable. Recent headlines include "Singapore Airlines having cameras built into the seat back of personal entertainment systems," and "Arizona considering a bill to force some public workers to give up DNA samples (and even pay for it)." It seems to be a daily occurrence where we have crossed another line in how far we will go to accept massive surveillance as normal. Do we even have a line the sand that we would defend? Do we even see anything wrong with it? Absolute power corrupts absolutely and we continue to give knowledge of our personal lives (power) to others. If we continue down the same path, I suppose we deserve what we get? I want to shout "Stop the train, I want off!" but I fear my plea would be ignored. So who out there is more optimistic than I and can recommend some reading that will give me hope? Bill 1475 was introduced by Republican State Senator David Livingston and would require teachers, police officers, child day care workers, and many others to submit their DNA samples along with fingerprints to be stored in a database maintained by the Department of Public Safety. "While the database would be prohibited from storing criminal or medical records alongside the DNA samples, it would require the samples be accompanied by the person's name, Social Security number, date of birth and last known address," reports Gizmodo. "The living will be required to pay [a $250 processing fee] for this invasion of their privacy, but any dead body that comes through a county medical examiner's office would also be fair game to be entered into the database."

15 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. What are they going to do if people refuse? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fire them? If entire staff at schools, police departments, etc. refuse to take the test and pay it won't turn out well if they try to fire them. Between lawsuits, union fights and politicians trying to explain why school is canceled and the police/fire are not answering calls things will get sorted out quickly. My guess the bill dies quietly in committee...

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    1. Re:What are they going to do if people refuse? by Tomahawk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's well and good, but these people need jobs. They are more likely to give them what they want than be out of the street wondering where their next meal will come from.

      People's security is very important to them, and companies know this.

      The best way to stop this is via the law, preferably Federal law.

  2. "Freedom" by Tomahawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems the more and more the meaning of the word "Freedom" and "Land of the Free" is becoming more and more watered down.
    And I'm not sure I'm surprised, to be honest. It seems that the USA, for everything that it does have, has forgotten about its people.

    There are many countries in the world where this sort of thing just wouldn't happen. Some have laws to protect their citizens (Europe being one -- no was would the GDPR allow this to happen, for example), and some just wouldn't have it within their culture.

    I do fear for the USA sometimes. Things are constantly happening there are making it one of the least free countries in the world. It's a trend that I don't see stopping. You might have missed the deadline of 1984, but I fear that's where you are all heading.

    And it's a bit scary looking at it from here.

  3. Re:David by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bill 1475 was introduced by Republican State Senator David Livingston

    I presumed it'd be a Republican to do this.

    ... and what are you willing to bet that he either has a stake in the company doing the sampling or received generous cash donations from them?

  4. Does the list include Senators ? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they want this then they should lead by example and be the first to have their DNA added to this database.

  5. A common problem it seems. by Sqreater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now, and surely more certainly in the future, the information demanded in this law will allow others to become you absolutely anytime they want to. Name, address, social security number, even DNA - what else is left that defines you as you? Hackers will have a field day. We Americans have lost the belief that freedom should cost anything in our daily lives. We are willing to give up freedom, privacy and rights if we think we can attain some minor level of safety and protection by doing so. Those who strive for more power over Americans know this and use this cowardice.

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    E Proelio Veritas.
  6. Re:Knowing Arizona as much as I do by forkfail · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It may not fly, but I rather suspect it will trudge forward through the muck and mire.

    --
    Check your premises.
  7. Re:David by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny, I expected it'd be a Democrat. Take their guns, ridicule their religion, tax their sodas, "Think of the children" and all that.

    The way I see it:
    Democrats want to own all your money and make you be a hippy. Republicans want to own your body and soul. They both want to tell you how to live.

    Both parties have nasty flaws, but over-zealous policing has always been the Republican side of the vice bucket.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  8. Re:David by rickb928 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you attributed this to the intentions of any particular political party, you;re doing it wrong. There is only one State.

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    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  9. Does this really matter? by dasunt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We're to the point these days where we can usually use available DNA databases to narrow down suspects to a small family. If we have an unknown DNA sample, we can sequence it, match it against the genealogy DNA databases out there (usually GEDCOM). We'll find that the unknown DNA matches both the Doe family and the Roe families, leaving us to find the individuals resulting from a marriage between the two families. After that, it's just a matter of some simple deduction (e.g. Jane Doe and Richard Roe had four children, one was male while the suspect's DNA was female, another was living in Alaska at the time, but the third and fourth one was in the area at the time of the murder), some police work to retrieve a sample of DNA (e.g. tail them, wait for them to get a coffee and then fish the empty coffee cup out of the trash), and it's done.

    The cat's out of the bag at this point. Assume GEDCOM and the other genealogy databases go defunct. Okay, great, you've just delayed the problem for a few years before some federal contractor builds in the ability to match DNA samples to relatives who have been incarcerated or DNA collected at a crime scene. (The US locks up a lot of people. Countless others (including murder victims) have their DNA collected by the police for the purpose of elimination.)

    I think the question we should be asking is what limits should we put on this power? And how do we work on training police and prosecutors in this new era? What instructions do we give to a jury? Because when you can match anyone's DNA that you find at a crime scene, it's going to lead to more random coincidences and mistakes. (A famous one would be the "serial killer" whose DNA was found at multiple crime scenes - but it turned out the "killer" was a factory worker at the place that makes the swabs being used.)

  10. Re:If they want my DNA . . . by kilfarsnar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The requirement seems to be tied to a job, so it's your job that's on the line not your freedom.

    I guess freedom really is just another word for "nothing left to lose".

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  11. Need to pass a data privacy liability act too by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before they pass this they need to pass a data privacy liability act. It should state the penalty for every occurence of a data record being lost to hackers because of inadequte security on the data base. FOr example, $1 million for loss of a DNA record, $500K for loss of a financial record, $250K for loss of a social security number. $100K for loss of a purchase history record and so on.
    Additionally the penalty would apply not just to the person that collected the data in the first place but separately to any other parties it was entrusted to who lost it. So shared data would be subject to double the penalty. This would prevent avoiding responsibility by delegation.

    If they did that then I'd not be quite as fearful of this. It could still be abused by the gov't itself but this would reasonably limit the scope

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  12. Re:David by CaptainDork · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Bullshit.

    Trump brought the goddam swamp with him. Mueller's doing the draining.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  13. Re:David by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Democrats themselves say that they want to take your guns...

    Repeating a big lie doesn't make it true, it just makes you a more pathetic liar for repeating it. And pathetic you gun nuts are, as you DGAF about police shootings that rend the 2nd Amendment moot. If bearing a firearm in an open carry state is an automatic death sentence (or even not-firearms like the toys or BB guns held by Tamir Rice or John Crawford) then obviously you don't have a right to bear them. If you weren't full of shit, your first priority would be to get those killer cops sent to prison for murder.

  14. Re:David by CaptainDork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The term "Deep State" is about as meaningless as "snowflake," "libertard," and other stupid motherfucking words that you use as placeholders for knowledge.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.