UK: Database Pioneer's Privacy Fears
A Reuters newswire article, via Wired News, reports that:
A pioneer of Britain's DNA database said on Wednesday it may have grown so far beyond its original purpose that it now risks undermining civil rights.More here.
Professor Alec Jeffreys told BBC radio that hundreds of thousands of innocent people's DNA was now held on the database, a disproportionate number of them young black men.
The database, set up in 1995, has expanded to 3.6 million profiles, making it the largest in the world.
Everyone who has ever been arrested by the police, even if not charged, is obliged to provide a DNA sample for the database, which also includes victims of crime and others who have volunteered a sample to help a criminal investigation.
posted by Fergie @ 11/02/2006 10:25:00 AM
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