-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19338.html <A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19338.html">Political News from Wired News </A> ----- DNA Databases Go Too Far by Declan McCullagh 2:15 p.m. 26.Apr.99.PDT WASHINGTON -- If Representative Ron Paul has his way, federal agencies will not be able to assemble biometric profiles of Americans. The Texas Republican wants to prohibit massive government databases of DNA samples, photographs, and retinal scans. "It seems like everywhere you turn there's another government attempt to accumulate more information about us. This bill will be designed to stop those moves that use government money to set up data banks with DNA and other identifiers, such as pictures of the retina," Paul said in an interview. Aides to Paul, who has emerged as a prominent privacy advocate in Congress, drew up the sweeping new bill after a public outcry arose over federal tax dollars being used to build a national database of driver-license photographs. The US Secret Service paid Image Data LLC US$1.5 million to develop the database, which has become the target of at least two lawsuits since the agency's role became public. "The fact that this was started with a grant from the Secret Service shows they're moving in that direction," Paul said. "This whole process smells bad to me, and I thought I'd call attention to it among my colleagues by introducing this bill." An early draft of the proposed Privacy Protection Act would prevent the use of Secret Service funds -- or any tax dollars, for that matter -- to create any database containing biometric information about Americans. The federal government has recently begun to record more biometric information about Americans. Biometric technology allows the automatic recognition of a person based on physical characteristics. The Army issues recruits at Fort Still, Oklahoma stored value cards that require the correct fingerprint to use. The Immigration and Naturalization Service uses voice-identification technologies at some airports. The FBI is busy scanning paper fingerprint cards to create digital images and is feeding them into the National Crime Information Center computer, which the government says receives more than 2 million queries a day. The NCIC database is already overflowing with information about 32 million Americans, and Attorney General Janet Reno wants to add DNA samples taken from anyone arrested. DNA Databases Go Too Far Page 2 2:15 p.m. 26.Apr.99.PDT continued A preliminary version of the bill, which Paul hopes to introduce by the end of the week, would approve databases created by the Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Census Bureau, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. And prohibition would not apply to the "collection and use of names and Social Security numbers by the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service for functions directly related to the collection of revenue and the administration of the Social Security program." Paul's staff said that the final version of the proposal would limit the expansion of existing databases. "The creation of national databases has gone out of control over the last 10 years," said David Banisar, a lawyer at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. They're "frequently at the instigation of Congress, which has created them in the name of fighting immigration or welfare fraud or any number of issues. This often happens in secret, with no public accountability or privacy protections." Banisar added, "It's a very positive step that Congress is starting to recognize, after all this time, the dangers of these databases." But some experts say that the draft may go too far. "It could be too broad. I do think the federal government has a legitimate role in dealing with interstate cooperation in terms of crime. It seems reasonable to me that the federal government could fund an interstate crime database project.... What about a hospital using federal grant funds to come up with a database containing medical records about its patients?" asks Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Paul also has introduced legislation that would protect financial privacy by getting rid of the so-called Know Your Customer plan proposed -- and since abandoned -- by banking regulators. Related Wired Links: Biometric Banking Bides Time 6.Apr.99 Boosting Biometric Privacy 30.Mar.99 Use Your Lungs to Log On 9.Sep.98 Let Your Fingers Do the Login 8.Jul.98 Bill Clamps Down on Biometrics 6.May.98 Hospital Adds Human Touch to Patient Tracking 6.Nov.97 Copyright � 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. 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