You know, I really want to be horrified by this. It’s a huge invasion of privacy in a way, and catalouging the general public using any method is something that I’m vaguely against.

Realisically, what the fuck ever, dude. You want my stupid cells and mytochondria? Go for it. It’s you that has to fish my chewing gum out of the garbage can.

So much profiling stuff I want to be outraged over, and am, but it’s like a distant hum instead of an immediate sense of social actavism.

1. I don’t know that technology has ever really halted in the name of individual rights and 2. I’m lazy. Which you would know if you followed my DNA this morning. It was late. Does DNA show that you’re late?

There is no ethical reason why this should not be done- but I’d worry that police would grow this database to some massive size- then use insufficient panel of markers (SNP’s or microsatellites) to be able to distinguish between each individual, thus increasing the likelihood of false positive identification.

Even with a huge set of markers, there are likely going to be individuals with identical genotypes. Instead of acting responsibly with this type of data, police might fudge this part of their investigation, like they have been known to do with other parts.

My word, this is worse than those vague anti-terrorism laws.

This quote

“That means they can collect your DNA without your knowledge from any bodily samples you leave behind in public.”

really gives me the creeps, not the invasion of privacy, but the fact that people are moving around towns and cities leaving bodily samples in their wake. Eewww.

db

[...] of abandoned DNA, Belgian police salvaged a drink bottle that an eyewitness believes belonged to Madeleine McCann, [...]

[...] Henry Porter and a bunch of readers have commented in the Guardian on the proposal for British police to collect abandoned DNA without cause. [...]

[...] Police Want to Collect Abandoned DNA from Everyone by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei, Eye on DNA This morning I spent a couple of hours at my local West London high road shopping and hanging out at the park with my kindergartener. Little did I know that the police could have been following my every move, collecting my fingerprints, DNA, footwear impressions, photographs, and other samples that I might have left behind on discarded drink bottles or candy wrappers. I say “could have been” because the scenario is unlikely. For now. [...]

[...] week Hsien documented the recent efforts of UK police to make slelling a standard [...]

[...] criminals and assorted random people are the subject of contentious debate in New York State and Great Britain, a DNA database for tigers called the American Tiger Registry is also being proposed. Brian Werner [...]

[...] evidence was sent to the UK to be processed by the English crime labs and compared against their large UK DNA database. This was over three weeks ago. We are still waiting on [...]

[...] the UK National DNA Database by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei Posted August 27, 2007 in DNA and the Law The UK national DNA database is experiencing more bad press. Over 550,000 entries in the database are believed to be [...]

[...] appeal court judge in the UK, believes it is more fair to include everyone’s DNA in the national DNA database. This would include every resident along with every UK visitor and [...]

If you’re not planning on doing a crime, why does it matter? Anything to put away the molesters, rapists, killers. Yay DNA!