UK: Innocent People Want Their DNA Removed from Government Database
July 30th, 2008Via: Reuters:
Britain’s DNA database, the most comprehensive in the world, should remove details of people who are acquitted of crimes, a government-funded panel said on Wednesday.
A “citizen’s inquiry” instigated by the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) also called for the National DNA Database to be taken out of direct control of the police and government, with oversight handed instead to an independent authority.
The conclusions will fuel controversy about the ethical foundations of the database, which was established in 1995 in Britain — the country where scientists first pioneered the technique of DNA fingerprinting.
It now contains genetic profiles on more than 4 million people, representing the highest proportion of any population on a forensic DNA database in the world, at over 6 percent.
catch 22 by way of 1984: if they were truly innocent, they’d have nothing to fear from being on such a list; since they ARE so concerned, they must have something to hide, and are therefore legitimate “potential terrorists”, and should be on the list.
Am I joking? Sort of. It is the way the public’s perception is being shaped, tho. After 9/11 II, it will simply become the “normal” way to look at things.