According to FBI statistics seen by The Intercept, the bureau has accumulated 21.7 million DNA profiles, which is roughly 7% of the US population. The FBI, like China, has been collecting DNA samples from millions of Americans, creating a vast database that might lead to a dystopian situation with terrifying ramifications.
In the United States, rights and privacy are on the edge of extinction. According to FBI data seen by The Intercept, the FBI has gathered 21.7 million DNA profiles, which corresponds to around 7% of the population. They are acting in the name of law enforcement, but the information and data might readily be utilised against those who are no longer in the government’s good graces.
The police presence is expanding in preparation for the Labour Day weekend.
DNA data is not just employed in criminal cases; it also exposes a lot about a person’s background, lifestyle, and healthcare needs. All of this has the potential to be utilised to manipulate the people.
“According to its budget request for fiscal year 2024, the FBI intends to nearly double its current $56.7 million budget for dealing with its DNA catalogue with an additional $53.1 million.” ‘The requested resources will allow the FBI to handle the rapidly expanding amount of DNA samples acquired by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,’ the increase request states,” according to the investigative media organisation.
“In an April 2023 statement to Congress to explain the budget request, FBI Director Christopher Wray cited several factors that had significantly expanded the FBI’s DNA processing requirements.” “He said the FBI collected around 90,000 samples per month — ‘over 10 times the historical sample volume’ — and expected that number to rise to about 120,000 per month, totaling about 1.5 million new DNA samples per year,” The Intercept said.
The vast majority of Americans are unaware of the FBI’s massive DNA database. The collection of DNA data is a major source of concern for civil liberties groups.
“When we’re talking about rapid expansion like this, it’s getting us ever closer to a universal DNA database,” Vera Eidelman, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney who specialises in genetic privacy, told The Intercept in an interview. “I believe the implications for civil liberties are significant here.”
“When surveillance technology becomes cheaper, easier, and faster to use,” she argued, “it tends to get used more — often in troubling ways.”
“A universal database would simply undermine our concepts of autonomy, freedom, and the presumption of innocence.” It would imply that the government can track us at any time using our personal information, according to Eidelman. “Our DNA is personal and sensitive: it can reveal our proclivity for serious health problems, family members, and ancestry.”
“The rapid growth of the FBI’s sample load is largely due to a Trump-era rule change mandating the collection of DNA from migrants arrested or detained by immigration authorities,” The Intercept reported.
The FBI’s hurry to gather DNA began in 1990. The Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, was in place by 1998 and covered the whole country.
“If you look back to when CODIS was established, it was originally for violent or sexual offenders,” Anna Lewis, a Harvard researcher specialising in the ethical aspects of genomics research, told The Intercept in an interview. “The ACLU warned that this would be a slippery slope, and we’ve seen exactly that.”
“Just by breathing, you’re discarding DNA in a way that can be traced back to you,” she explained.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a contract in May for laboratory services to assist with “autonomously collected eDNA testing,” which is environmental DNA testing based on samples that are no longer gathered manually. Every American should be concerned about this.
The police can now demand DNA samples from anyone who has committed a felony. If you are arrested for a felony in 28 states, your DNA can be extracted before you are even convicted.
According to The Intercept, authorities even offer plea bargains, downgrading felony charges to misdemeanour offences in return for DNA samples.
“It changed massively,” Lewis remarked. “You only have to be a person of interest in order to end up in these databases.”
“Until recently, the United States’ DNA database outperformed even authoritarian China, which launched an ambitious DNA collection programme in 2017.” According to the BBC, the United States had roughly 4% of its population’s DNA that year, while China had about 3%.
According to a 2020 research quoted by the New York Times, China has since revealed a goal to gather between 5 and 10% of its male population’s DNA,” The Intercept stated.
DNA processing has progressed significantly. A DNA profile may purportedly be thrown up in one to two hours after a simple swab of someone’s inner cheek without the assistance of a lab or a human.
