You’re guilty of something and we know it
In a society that becomes more and more like a dystopian novel every day, it should come as no surprise that our governments want to put our genetic make-up on a database, too. After all, matching DNA found at a crime scene to a suspect’s retained DNA profile solves any crime within a day or so (at least according to your favourite CSI spin-off).
However, DNA isn’t as infallible as Anthony E. Zuiker or the government want us to believe – and databases full of DNA profiles definitely aren’t.
Recently, a high-flying lawyer lost her job because her DNA profile was in the database (mirror), having been swabbed after (false) allegations were made against her. She was later released without any charge, but her DNA profile was kept on the database “just in case”. Apparently, a presence there warrants a sacking – the fact that she was innocent all along, and never even charged with an offence, never mattered.
In its haste to add every single person onto the database – because we’re all criminals waiting to strike – the UK police has started arresting innocent people just to take their DNA. No need to panic, though: if you remain innocent for six years, your DNA profile will be removed from the database – until, of course, five years from now it is decided that the six-year term should be prolonged, preferably indefinitely. Just in case.
Equally worrying is the idea that you would be swabbed for your DNA, and your DNA profile retained for a very long time, if you commit the annoying but not exactly vicious offence of speeding (mirror). Or, God forbid, littering (oh, you terrorist!). The government’s tactic is understandable: littering and speeding are well-known paths to cold-blooded serial rape and murder.
Solving crime is important. But as less than 1% of UK crimes are solved with the help of DNA, the idea of having a costly, invasive and unsecure database of every (innocent until proven guilty) resident’s DNA profile quickly becomes ridiculous.
Apart from the cost, the invasion of privacy, the insecurity and henceforth the fact that this information will be abused, there is a whole host of other problems with DNA profiles.
And with the UK government’s long track record of losing sensitive data, why wouldn’t they lose your DNA profile too?
That way, someone can fabricate DNA evidence from it; if an unscrupulous, underpaid government employee doesn’t beat them to it.
The New York Times proudly reports (mirror): “They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.”
Awesome. We’ll all live happily ever after.
Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. – Der Prozess