The year is 2025. The population is 325 million, and the FBI has the DNA profiles of all of them. Unlike fingerprints, these profiles reveal vital medical information. The universal database arrived surreptitiously. First, the Department of Defense's repository of DNA samples from all military personnel, established to identify remains of soldiers missing from action, was given to the FBI. Then local police across the country shadowed individuals, collecting shed DNA for the databank. On the way, thousands of innocent people were imprisoned because they had the misfortune to have race-based crime genes in their DNA samples. Sadly, it did not have to be this way. If only we had passed laws against collecting and using shed DNA...."—Professor David H. Kaye
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Every dystopian sci-fi film we've ever seen is suddenly converging into this present moment in a
dangerous trifecta between science, technology and a government that wants to be all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful.By tapping into your phone lines and cell phone communications, the
government knows what you say. By uploading all of your emails, opening your mail, and reading your Facebook posts and
text messages, the
government knows what you write. By monitoring your movements with the use of license plate readers, surveillance cameras and other tracking devices, the
government knows where you go.
By churning through all of the detritus of your life—
what you read, where you go, what you say—the
government can predict what you will do. By mapping the synapses in your brain, scientists—and in turn, the government—
will soon know what you remember. And by accessing your DNA, the
government will soon know everything else about you that they don't already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc.
Of course,
none of these technologies are foolproof. Nor are they immune from tampering, hacking or user bias. Nevertheless, they have become a convenient tool in the hands of government agents to render null and void the Constitution's requirements of privacy and its prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.Consequently, no longer are we "innocent until proven guilty" in the face of
DNA evidence that places us at the scene of a crime,
behavior sensing technology that interprets our body temperature and facial tics as suspicious, and government surveillance devices that cross-check our
biometrics,
license plates and DNA against a growing database of unsolved crimes and potential criminals.
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