The UK government’s defeat today in the European
Court of Human Rights in the cases of ‘S’ and Marper, was warmly welcomed by
privacy campaign NO2ID [2].
The men at the heart of the case were not found
guilty of any offence, but have had an eight-year fight to get records of their
DNA removed from the UK’s
National DNA Database. Because the Home Office and police insist on keeping
samples for ever from almost everyone arrested, the database is by far the
world’s biggest[3].
Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator said:
‘This is a victory for liberty and privacy. Though
these judgements are always complicated and slow in coming, it is a vindication
of what privacy campaigners have said all along.
‘The principle that we need to follow is simple:
when charges are dropped, suspect samples are destroyed - no charge, no DNA.’
2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan
campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php
for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.
