U.K.'s DNA database violates rights, court rules

The DNA records of about 850,000 people could be wiped from the U.K.'s national database after the European Union ruled it breached human rights.

The European Court of Human Rights decision on Thursday means that the DNA details and possibly fingerprints of people suspected of a crime, but later cleared, could be removed.

The court found that in keeping the DNA details of people suspected of a crime the "state had overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation."

The case was brought by two Britons, Michael Marper and "S", who were cleared of crimes and challenged the government over their details being kept on the 4.5 million-strong police database.

A U.K. Home Office representative said the government has until March before it must take any action on the ruling.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, saying in a statement: "DNA and fingerprinting is vital to the fight against crime, providing the police with more than 3,500 matches a month, and I am disappointed by the European Court of Human Rights' decision...The existing law will remain in place while we carefully consider the judgment."

Privacy pressure group NO2ID welcomed the decision with the organization's national coordinator Phil Booth describing it as a victory for liberty and privacy.

Nick Heath of ZDNet UKreported from London.

[therealgeeves]

Just issue all citizens with a facebook dna profile to get around this...

[fokkwp]

"DNA and fingerprinting is vital to the fight against crime"

Against that is the tendency for leading countries, some of which shall remain nameless here, to use security information for all kinds of political rather than merely security purposes. Such states have at times drifted closer to fascism. Fighting criminals by increasingly totalitarian means, rather than the causes of crime, can be dangerous for the health of the state, and I'm glad the EU recognizes this, probably responding to their own history.

[aka_tripleB]

How is storing DNA on people that didn't and probably won't commit a crime "vital to the fight against crime?" I have to say that the Home Secretary statement makes it sound like the British government wanted to do more than fight crime with its DNA database.

[gggg sssss]

Homeland security take note

[joetesta70]

Englans has become the Big Brother state. F' em.

[nsduffield]

Please check your facts the ECHR has nothing to to with the EU. It is a part of the Council of Europe, and includes All EU member states and many many others such as the Russian Federation.

[Glokenpop]

The database is a good idea.

If the end result is BAD it's not the technology or the database itself. It's the misuse of said information.

We don't ban the stock exchange because insider trading exists.

Boom headshot.