F.B.I. Plans to Grow DNA Database
The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to grow its DNA database, reports The New York Times. Currently 6.7 million profiles strong, the idea is to go from 80,000 new entries every year to 1.2 million in 2012.
While genetic information is certainly useful in catching some offenders and exonerating the wrongfully imprisoned, this ramp-up nevertheless raises a host of privacy questions. But the F.B.I. is passing it off as the equivalent of fingerprinting:
Law enforcement officials say that DNA extraction upon arrest is no different than fingerprinting at routine bookings and that states purge profiles after people are cleared of suspicion. In practice, defense lawyers say this is a laborious process that often involves a court order. (The F.B.I. says it has never received a request to purge a profile from its database.)
The story also cites a Congressional Research Service report on the impact of compulsory DNA collection on fourth amendment rights. The report points out that while the FBI creates genetic profiles using “junk DNA,” which was originally assumed to be non-coding, “because it is thought to lack both a biological purpose and indicators of sensitive medical characteristics.” But as genetic research has advanced, it has become clear that DNA once deemed extraneous does in fact play a significant role. Bioethicist Sheri Alpert addressed the issue in a report last year on privacy issues in genomic medicine (sub’s required): “[T]here is likely much more interplay among genes and the noncoding portions of the genome and that each gene must play a role in more proteins, traits, and diseases than previously thought.”
Bottom line: storing genetic information in a database means retaining data that may reveal more about a person that we can even interpret at the present moment. The full privacy implications may not be clear until research advances.
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