California law says genetic testing companies have to get your permission before they store, use or sell your DNA, but the state itself doesn't have to get your permission and has been storing DNA samples from every baby born there since the '80s. Lawmakers want to change that, but face an uphill battle.
How does it protect people’s identities? Edit: it helps the government identify people. People should have the choice to keep their personal generic information private. If it’s in people’s best interest then tell them how they benefit from it and let them decide.
I think it would help in cases like this one, where a man stole another man’s identity and posed as him for years. The person who had his identity stolen was sent to mental hospitals and labeled as crazy until he could prove who he really was. With dna taken at birth, there is a record of who you are from day one, and you won’t have to fight so many legal battles to prove otherwise. Identity theft is scary.
https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/former-university-of-iowa-hospital-employee-used-fake-identity-for-35-years/
The DMV is going to do genetic testing when you apply for an ID? Or a bank will require it for a loan?
When you look at the way the world works you see this will just be another tool used to control and exploit people.
No, the DMV takes fingerprints. Your fingerprints are also collected at birth, too. When my children were born, the nurses even took their footprints, too. I got to keep a copy of each of their footprints. I think documentation is in everyone’s best interests.
One interesting thing, a fingerprint is (from what i can tell) re-obtained because the fingerprint data is internal use only. The doctors, The government, the military and the jailers dont share this data with eachother. With DNA, it sounds like the doctors are giving your DNA at birth to the government, the military, the jailers, the advertisers, and your insurance company. These parties dont just know your child’s perminant identity AND their risk of medical problems or their biologicaly created mential shortcomings, now they know yours, your famialy’s and a little bit about unconcenting strangers.
Its like if 23andMe almost exclusively used its data to hold power over you.
I see your concern, but the government has been keeping files on individuals and families for decades. If you’re related to Charlie Manson, Sharon Tate, or both, they probably have known who you are since birth, and have known exactly where you live, work, or hang out in between work and home. My feeling is, they’ve already collected dna on everyone. If it is shared, at least it is one more way to verify your identity in an emergency situation. Oh, no what are they going to do with it other than that? Scoff at the fact that I’m the poorest person in America that happens to be related to the Pilgrims from the Mayflower? What are they going to do, read my file and laugh at me?