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DNA amendment could be a rights violation: activists

A legislative amendment that will allow law enforcement authorities to collect DNA samples from more criminals and suspects may constitute invasion of privacy, human rights activists warned yesterday.

Police are authorized to collect deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, samples only from those who have committed sex or violent crimes. However, an amendment to the DNA Sample Collection Regulation, which passed an initial legislative review last month, will expand the targets to include suspects and offenders who have committed crimes that cause bodily harm, drug abuse and theft.

“The National Police Agency [NPA], which worked so hard to have the amendments passed, told the public that such a move will help in criminal investigations,” Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, told a press conference at the legislature yesterday.

“DNA is something very sensitive, as it tells a lot about a person. The NPA wants to set up an expanded DNA database, but it didn’t tell us how it would use or maintain the database. That’s really a cause for concern,” Liu said.

“What the DNA can say about a person is way more than what the police wants — I’m really worried that the information will be misused,” said Wellington Koo (顧立雄), an attorney.

“I’d like to urge the Legislative Yuan to hit the brakes,” Koo said.

In response, the NPA said that expanding the DNA sample collection would not constitute human rights violation.

“The section of the DNA string that we’ll be collecting for identification is called ‘short tandem repeat,’ which does not deal with hereditary information. Hence, anything related to someone’s inherited health conditions, family medical history, or personal life will not be revealed,” Cheng Hsiao-kui (程曉桂), chief of the agency’s Forensic Science Section, was quoted by the Central News Agency as saying.

“Besides, access to the database will be highly restricted, with no Internet link allowed,” Cheng said.
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