[HN Gopher] The DHS has been harvesting DNA from Americans for y...
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The DHS has been harvesting DNA from Americans for years
Author : righthand
Score : 115 points
Date : 2025-09-24 14:51 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45353800
| reaperducer wrote:
| I liked the world better when the tinfoil hat people were wrong.
| slackfan wrote:
| So back before we came out of the trees?
| sschueller wrote:
| The irony is that they didn't force people to give their DNA
| (except if you were arrested) but instead people willingly gave
| it and even paid for it.
|
| If you think Bill Gates is going to implant a chip in your
| brain via a COVID vaccine you are mistaken. Once such tech
| exists (if ever) people will be lining up in queues and pay a
| lot of money to get it implanted.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _The irony is that they didn 't force people to give their
| DNA (except if you were arrested) but instead people
| willingly gave it and even paid for it._
|
| You and I must have read different articles. The one being
| discussed here is about American citizens, who are not under
| arrest, being compelled to give cheek swabs as a condition of
| re-entering their own country.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| This isn't a conspiracy, this just a law enforcement practice
| that people might not like and sounds scary enough to make for
| an inflammatory headline.
| codedokode wrote:
| Treating everyone as a potential criminal and collecting
| their DNA and fingerprints is not normal practice.
| Fingerprints are collected only from criminals or suspects.
| OptionOfT wrote:
| https://archive.ph/ov4RV
| pfdietz wrote:
| Have they ever encouraged people to submit DNA samples in order
| to identify criminal relatives? I could see this going over well
| with the law-and-order part of the population.
| timcobb wrote:
| This is a great call, these folks aren't devious or clever
| enough to understand that they can just ask...
| pfdietz wrote:
| Even more devious would be "submit DNA samples and we'll give
| you immunity from paternity lawsuits", since concerns over
| that might inhibit some.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Nobody who needs protection from a paternity lawsuit would
| fall for it.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| Oh, my sweet summer child. Have you met any teenage boys?
| Or most philandering men?
| IAmBroom wrote:
| A murderer was caught because he was semi-closely (2nd-cousin)
| related to my cousin. Her DNA was a loose match to evidence.
| They found out she is The Geneologist for our family, and asked
| her to help... Boom, found him.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| You just follow them around until they throw their lunch in the
| park waste bin, then collect their DNA off the garbage. No need
| to compel anyone.
| pfdietz wrote:
| That's the end game, but first you have to figure who to
| follow around. To do that, you triangulate with public DNA
| data of somewhat distant relatives. Forensic genealogy.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| _HN Search: GEDmatch_ -
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
| yegle wrote:
| California is ahead of the curve:
|
| DNA of every baby born in California is stored. Who has access to
| it? - CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-biobank-
| dna-babies-w...
| SilverElfin wrote:
| That is terrible and dystopian. Even if they claim to honor
| deletion how would you know? It may be resold already or in
| backups or wherever.
| righthand wrote:
| Frightening and has convinced me why people are moving away.
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| Tough call between the big state with NIMBYs and
| surveillance, or the big state where they want me to use the
| men's bathroom and the cops will give you hell for fleeing
| the state to get an abortion
| sellmesoap wrote:
| I remember a friend of a friend describing being arrested for
| putting a peace protest flyer on a public bulletin board in
| Australia (protesting the second gulf war) and having a DNA
| sample taken at that time.
| wormius wrote:
| I'm old enough to remember this:
| https://www.nydailynews.com/1998/12/17/test-tot-dna-sez-rudy...
|
| (1998, NYC, "America's Mayor" before he became such)
|
| "Mayor Giuliani said yesterday that he favors DNA testing for
| all children at birth as a tool to fight crime, track deadbeat
| dads and resolve paternity suits. Though not formally proposing
| such a plan, the mayor told reporters, "I would have no problem
| with that or fingerprinting all children. "I think DNA should
| be available the way fingerprints are available," he added. The
| mayor's comments added fuel to the heated debate over Police
| Commissioner Howard Safir's plan to collect DNA from prison
| inmates, parolees and crime suspects."
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| Seems to be one of those issues like NSA mass surveillance, which
| transcends party lines and remains supported by most politicians.
| Kudos to my senator Ron Wyden though, he's been a true champion
| of opposing both of those things.
| caprock wrote:
| The X-Files was right all along
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(page generated 2025-09-24 23:02 UTC)