Don’t Buy California’s Callous Attempt to Ignore People’s DNA Privacy Rights, EFF Tells Court
By Karen Gullo,
Electronic Frontier Foundation [cites CGS and Pete Shanks]
| 03. 29. 2019
Analyzing and indefinitely keeping the DNA profiles of thousands of Californians arrested for felonies, but never charged with a crime, is not just an ominously overbroad practice by law enforcement—it’s an invasion of privacy that violates the state’s constitution. Last year EFF and our co-counsel Michael Risher filed a lawsuit against California challenging its DNA retention and search practices on behalf of the Center for Genetics and Society, the Equal Justice Society, and an individual plaintiff, writer and editor Pete Shanks.
Attorneys for the state responded to the case by telling a judge there’s no basis for it, no law is being broken, and it should be dismissed. This is simply wrong. We asked the judge this week to reject the state’s callous indifference to the privacy rights of Californians and its attempt to sweep its conduct under the rug.
DNA can reveal a vast array of highly private information, including family relationships, ethnicity, physical characteristics, illnesses, and genetic traits. People have a right to expect that this information will remain private and out of the hands... see more
Related Articles
The last couple of weeks have given us some remarkable stories – ludicrous, thought-provoking or both – from around the world. Some of these takes are so scorching hot that they self-combust.
For instance, it has recently been proved, or demonstrated, or at least asserted, that women can benefit from hanging around powerful men. Hey, it must be scientificalish, it was published in Nature Communications (on November 17, with open access), under this title:
The association between early career informal...
By Katie Mettler, Washington Post | 11.19.2020
Prince George’s County is one of 10 jurisdictions across the country that will receive a $470,000 grant from the Justice Department to reopen cold cases using forensic genetic genealogy — a new investigative technique that draws on privately curated DNA...
By Erik Parens, Aeon | 11.10.2020
Over the past decade, economists, sociologists and psychologists have begun collaborating with geneticists to investigate how genomic differences among human beings are linked to differences in their behaviours and social outcomes. The insights sought are wide-ranging: why do some of...
By Jeffrey Mervis, Science | 11.09.2020
An advocate for using IQ tests to select who is allowed to legally immigrate to the United States has been given a high-ranking position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
ScienceInsider has learned that Jason Richwine,...
