At 5:50 PM -0700 10/17/00, Nathan Saper wrote:
On Tue, Oct 17, 2000 at 12:07:00PM -0400, David Honig wrote:
At 09:14 PM 10/16/00 -0400, Nathan Saper wrote:
When do cops take DNA at traffic stops?
Not yet. But I believe the UK takes samples of everyone arrested (not necessarily guilty) of minor crimes, and some US states and cities do or periodically propose doing this or more.
The next question is: What do they do with this info? Insurance companies and the like use it to justify discrimination against people likely to develop certain medical conditions.
Are you claiming that DNA collected by the police is then given to insurance companies? An audacious claim. Do you evidence to support this extraordinary claim? I will be very interested to hear which communities, which states, are doing this. So will many journalists, I hope. On the other hand, having heard that even getting a simple blood or saliva sample requires court action, I expect you are once again merely hand-waving. As for insurance companies "discriminating," this is what I hope for. Those of us who don't engage in certain practices--smoking, sky diving, anal sex, whatever--should not be subsidizing those who do. This is the beauty of "opt out" plans. But the first order of business is for you to support your claim that DNA is collected by the police and then shared with insurance companies. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.