Comments on: European Court Says Police Can’t Keep DNA Samples from Innocent People

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:59:46 +0000

My opinion, I think the European Court of Human Rights court decision is exactly right. If you aren’t in the database then that database cannot be used as a weapon or fishing expedition against the innocent. Furthermore, any large database becomes attractive for purposes other than what it was originally created for.

I still remember a municipal manager, years ago, started selling names and addresses from the municipal property tax rolls, for commercial marketing purposes. They absolutely thought they did nothing wrong, until the citizens found out about it. To the manager it was “innovative” and a “new revenue stream”. The companies purchasing that information were interested because, as householders, the names on the list presumably had money and could be effectively marketed to.

Of course once this activity became public there was a scandal and the information sales were completely stopped. To the housing owners it was a breach of trust and an unsanctioned use of private information.

By: chilton

chilton — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:46:38 +0000

although I think dna would be a good crime fighting tool, I don’t think that anyone sould have theirs stored for any length of time by somone else unless they are in fact convicted criminals. if you were suspect in a murder or another similarly violent crime then I would think it to be fair to have to submit upon request, but the default should be that it is destroyed after use, unless orders from a court pertaining to said persons dna use request otherwise.

and everyone has to agree that DNA can be used to publicize you life like you would never imagine.
imagine getting a letter in the mail that said you were getting fined the maximum amount for littering because the police found a pop bottle on the ground and for whatever reason decided to waste the time and money looking for a dna sample and yours came up, no winesses to the “crime” except a few molecules which don’t tell the story about how the pop bottle flew out of the garbage truck as it drove by and not by you maliciously throwing it out your car window
scares me to hell

By: Eliza Strickland

Eliza Strickland — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:15:54 +0000

It's interesting -- one of the previous posts that I linked to deals with a scientific campaign to get the genomes of 100,000 people sequenced and posted online. The U.S. scientists leading the crusade believe in radical, genetic transparency. I wonder if Europe and the U.S. will diverge on genetic privacy laws, the way they have on genetically modified food regulations?

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:09:14 +0000

While I would hate for unscrupulous agencies to get a hold of DNA records (I’m thinking Health Insurance companies and the like ;) ), I can actually see a benefit to people having their DNA on record somewhere. At the very least to aid in identifying your corpse after an accident or whatnot. There are aspects outside the Criminal Justice system where having this information could actually help.

Although, as a member of the military, I guess my expectations to privacy are a lot lower than the average citizen. ;)