Steve (GACTGAAGCTGTT...) Expounded Thusly:

Perhaps never. That’s what I’m afraid of! I wonder, back when they discovered fingerprints (1972, wasn’t it?), if there was some kind of privacy scare over the adoption of fingerprinting people who are arrested.

May I be so bold as to suggest that having a computerized database of every arrested person’s DNA is a tad more intrusive and revealing? May I make a ludicrous observation that it would be possible to clone someone using that information? And may I posit that no one should have that information without the owner of the DNA willingly volunteering it?

“Oh, we’ll erase the records of people who end up innocent.” Uh, right. Sure. Maybe you will, but what about the crazy people who come after you, or the people at the backup data place, or any technician with a grudge and a pocket USB drive? Once the system is in place and in use, next comes the abuse.

Just think of all the credit card info, the employee records, and the transaction data that has “gone missing” lately. I’m sure that would never happen with a DNA database.