info NeoGnostic: iNG in minority over DNA database

: Name: Chris Armstrong; Location: Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom

I am the owner and managing director of Information Automation Limited (IAL), a company that specialises in research, consultancy and training for the information profession. We are particularly interested in all forms of electronic information resources (e-journals, e-books, etc) and I teach a course in electronic publishing at the Department of Information Studies in Aberystwyth. Drilling down still further(!), my interests centre on the quality and evaluation of electronic information, and in the thinking that underpins activities in library and information science.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

iNG in minority over DNA database

BBC's Panorama dealt with the DNA database yesterday and this post was intended to be simply a link to the programme -

Give us your DNA: Someone is added to the UK DNA database every minute, including people who have not been charged with any offence.

And to note that the British database is larger by an order of magnitude than any other in the world - I think it is around 100 times larger (by percentage of the population) than its US equivalent. But I was surprised to learn that two-thirds of the British public is in favour of the project, which stores the DNA of the innocent as well as that of criminals.

A specially commissioned opinion poll for Panorama has revealed that two thirds of people would be in favour of a national DNA database. Sixty-six percent of those questioned by ICM said they would approve of a new law requiring all adults to give a sample of their DNA to help with the prevention and detection of crime.

>>Technorati tags: DNA; personal information