Genetic surveillance

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

The Chinese Government is building the world’s largest police-run DNA database.

Concept:

• Since 2013, Chinese authorities have collected DNA samples from entire ethnic minority communities and ordinary citizens outside any criminal investigations and without proper informed consent.
• This program of mass DNA data collection violates Chinese domestic law and global human rights norms.
• And, when combined with other surveillance tools, it will increase the power of the Chinese state and further enable domestic repression in the name of stability maintenance and social control.
• The forensic use of DNA has the potential to solve crimes and save lives; yet it can also be misused and reinforce discriminatory law enforcement and authoritarian political control.
• DNA analysis is now considered the gold standard for police forensics.
• Recent innovations in DNA sequencing and big-data computing make the process of analysing biometric samples more efficient and cost-effective.
• Yet forensic DNA collection has also been linked to the abuse of police powerand even can lead to the loss of genetic privacy.
• In order to defend against possible abuses, compulsory police collection and storage of biometric data must be strictly limited to those convicted of serious criminal wrongdoing.

Dragnet

It is mass surveillance programme run by USA’s national security agency.