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Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

theregister.com

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Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#31

Post by rolph »

jedberg wrote: post #23
yannyu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. What is collected and stored is a small blood-spot sample from a heel prick on a newborn. This is used to test for various kinds of conditions that affect newborns. This isn't a full DNA genome sequence or even any data at all, just the blood-spot specimen. Law enforcement does not have automatic access to this sample, but individual samples…

> This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. Was it inaccurate?

it was misinformation, the DNA in such a sample is not only miniscule and unstandardized, but also not treated for longterm archival specimen retention.

the blood "spot" is about general morphology, and antigenic specificity.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#32

Post by pdonis »

yannyu wrote: post #27
jedberg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. Was it inaccurate?

It's about as accurate a Buzzfeed headline, but I guess that's par for the course on the internet these days. It's not a "DNA sample" in the way that most people would consider it these days, no more than a used cup would also be called a "DNA sample". But to your point, it can still be used for surveillance and tracking. Also, your phrasing is designed to make it seem like a huge overreach, when this act has likely…

> this act has likely saved millions of lives through early diagnosis of preventable diseases and early intervention on disabilities

Why does the state have to collect and keep the sample for that to happen? Why can't it be the private property of the parents, provided to whatever private testing labs are used to do the tests?

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#33

Post by chneu »

jedberg wrote: post #23
yannyu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. What is collected and stored is a small blood-spot sample from a heel prick on a newborn. This is used to test for various kinds of conditions that affect newborns. This isn't a full DNA genome sequence or even any data at all, just the blood-spot specimen. Law enforcement does not have automatic access to this sample, but individual samples…

> This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. Was it inaccurate?

It's very inaccurate.

OP made it sound like Cali was genome sequencing everyone born in the state and then storing that.

What's really going on is they're doing routine blood tests.

So yeah, pretty inaccurate.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#34

Post by postflopclarity »

jedberg wrote: post #23
yannyu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. What is collected and stored is a small blood-spot sample from a heel prick on a newborn. This is used to test for various kinds of conditions that affect newborns. This isn't a full DNA genome sequence or even any data at all, just the blood-spot specimen. Law enforcement does not have automatic access to this sample, but individual samples…

> This is a particularly incendiary way of putting this information out there. Was it inaccurate?

the implication was misleading, yes. the implication being that California has database of its citizens' genetic data. when the reality is that CA has a _physical sample_ of blood.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#35

Post by [deleted] »

y-curious wrote: post #14
nozzlegear wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

Every time I fly from SFO, there’s a face-tracking camera that takes your photo after you stand up close to it. There’s definitely some sort of data harvesting there and there’s no opt out that I know about. I also have Clear, which was voluntary but certainly collected my biometric data years ago. I also have Global Entry, which has a similar scanning tech to point 1.

[deleted]

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#36

Post by slg »

ModernMech wrote: post #25
postingawayonhn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the assumptions should always be that one day someone like that could take power and gain access to that data.

The way to prevent authoritarians from abusing power is to not elect them, and to throw them in jail when they violate the law. They're not hard to spot; people warned about the current guy for a decade before he took over. What's happening right now is not because the government had a database lying around and an unspecified authoritarian picked it up. What's happening is that after a specific authoritarian staged a…

>The way to prevent authoritarians from abusing power is to not elect them, and to throw them in jail when they violate the law.

This was the true motivation for my comment. It's futile trying to design your laws to withstand the dangers of a future authoritarian regime taking power when that authoritarian regime can just as easily change or ignore those laws once they take control. Our government is experiencing a rubber hose attack, the strength of our encryption doesn't matter.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#37

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nozzlegear wrote: post #6
wagwang wrote: post #4

How is this news, the usgov has been taking my biometrics for the past 5 years

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

> They haven't taken mine

If you let have a passport, State has your face.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#38

Post by zahlman »

jedberg wrote: post #21
zahlman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... The concept of DNA sample collection existed in 1983?

They actually started in 1966 (it's a blood spot collection) but they only started keeping it in 1983.

And what information did they hope to glean back then?

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#40

Post by abeppu »

y-curious wrote: post #14
nozzlegear wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

Every time I fly from SFO, there’s a face-tracking camera that takes your photo after you stand up close to it. There’s definitely some sort of data harvesting there and there’s no opt out that I know about. I also have Clear, which was voluntary but certainly collected my biometric data years ago. I also have Global Entry, which has a similar scanning tech to point 1.

Yeah, I think the crappy side of it at this point is that the biometric data they collect is never leveraged to help you as a citizen.

If I lose my passport while abroad, given that the government has my fingerprints etc, why can't I use those biometrics to reenter the country (and have a replacement passport reissued immediately)?

Officially, you are supposed to be able to opt out of the face recognition cameras at security but I think whether staff actually respect that is not consistent.

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