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Yes. Someone needs to flesh out a candidate sort of government oppression that could be stopped by this sort of law. I think the opposite -- inaccurate police w

Yes. Someone needs to flesh out a candidate sort of government oppression that could be stopped by this sort of law. I think the opposite -- inaccurate police work is an oppression all its own, leads to the incarceration of the innocent, and that more and better DNA testing is a great thing.

mlyle 7y ago
It's one thing when the better police work is purely being used to catch murderers and rapists. When it moves down the ladder to omniscience about citizen activities in general, it gets scarier. No one doubts that license plate camera databases of citizen movements, Stringray devices, etc, can help solve a whole bunch of crimes. But they can also be used to crush civil liberties in the hands of an authoritarian state. They can also be used for petty abuses of power. So it is with this, of being able to attribute any genetic information left behind to the particular person it's from. We have a whole lot of laws, and almost everyone breaks some every day. Very efficient law enforcement able to "solve these crimes" easily can be wielded against anyone.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  Yes, clearly when you develop nightmare scenarios, they are scary. The point is is there any reason to believe those nightmare scenarios have any realistic chance of coming true?
  - RaceWon 7y ago
    > The point is is there any reason to believe those nightmare scenarios have any realistic chance of coming true Let's look at Trump. Like or loathe him, reasonable people will agree if there was a skeleton or three in his past it would be used to attempt to unseat him. He, however, lived most his life before tech existed. So what will happen to a President 50 years from now? I'm not knocking Monks here--but who among us has emulated their legendary behavior throughout their entire lives? So I for one do believe those nightmare scenarios will come true.
  - mlyle 7y ago
    Sure. We saw Hoover, Nixon, and others in the past use FBI and IRS records to harass opposition figures. We've seen some current police departments retaliate against citizens who have made internal affairs complaints and other critics in various ways. It's part of our past, and part of our present to some degree. Not to mention what we see happening in some other places in the world. Why would we not believe abuses would be part of our future, especially if they become easier?
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  Hobbyists are already making license plate readers to monitor the traffic around them, for fun and security. The tech is so simple and cheap that this surveillance will be part of life whether the state participates or not.

mlyle 7y ago

It's one thing when the better police work is purely being used to catch murderers and rapists. When it moves down the ladder to omniscience about citizen activities in general, it gets scarier. No one doubts that license plate camera databases of citizen movements, Stringray devices, etc, can help solve a whole bunch of crimes. But they can also be used to crush civil liberties in the hands of an authoritarian state. They can also be used for petty abuses of power. So it is with this, of being able to attribute any genetic information left behind to the particular person it's from. We have a whole lot of laws, and almost everyone breaks some every day. Very efficient law enforcement able to "solve these crimes" easily can be wielded against anyone.

oh_sigh 7y ago
Yes, clearly when you develop nightmare scenarios, they are scary. The point is is there any reason to believe those nightmare scenarios have any realistic chance of coming true?
- RaceWon 7y ago
  > The point is is there any reason to believe those nightmare scenarios have any realistic chance of coming true Let's look at Trump. Like or loathe him, reasonable people will agree if there was a skeleton or three in his past it would be used to attempt to unseat him. He, however, lived most his life before tech existed. So what will happen to a President 50 years from now? I'm not knocking Monks here--but who among us has emulated their legendary behavior throughout their entire lives? So I for one do believe those nightmare scenarios will come true.
- mlyle 7y ago
  Sure. We saw Hoover, Nixon, and others in the past use FBI and IRS records to harass opposition figures. We've seen some current police departments retaliate against citizens who have made internal affairs complaints and other critics in various ways. It's part of our past, and part of our present to some degree. Not to mention what we see happening in some other places in the world. Why would we not believe abuses would be part of our future, especially if they become easier?
BurningFrog 7y ago
Hobbyists are already making license plate readers to monitor the traffic around them, for fun and security. The tech is so simple and cheap that this surveillance will be part of life whether the state participates or not.