Select Committee Report: Royal Academy of Engineering

August 15, 2008 — 585

In 2007 the House of Lords made a call for evidence, as part of their investigation into privacy  entitled “The Impact of Surveillance and Data Collection upon the Privacy of Citizens and their Relationship with the State” several different bodies and individuals provided their expertise. One of these was the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The Royal Academy of Engineering conclusions, submitted in June 2007, where similar, though more muted, to those of others who submitted evidence (e.g GeneWatch)

The report made several statements that the balance of privacy and surveillance of the state is swinging in favor of the state. They found that CCTV can not be avoided, that “optional systems” like Oyster cards, which track peoples movements around London, were not optional, and that there was no clear line between beneficial surveillance and constitutionally improper surveillance.

Highlights from the report include:

  • The rise of camera surveillance probably has the greatest impact as individuals in public spaces cannot refuse consent for the recording of their image…..The increase in such surveillance means that the ‘big brother’ State becomes more than just a cliché. Authorities are watching citizens for increasing proportions of their daily lives and citizens have no power to reject such surveillance.
  • In the private sector, schemes like the Oyster travel card …..involve collection of data about individuals… people would miss out significantly on benefits and convenience if they refuse them or use them anonymously. These technologies …effectively collect data about peoples’ journeys …by stealth.
  • The existence and use of the National DNA Databases (NDNAD) raises significant questions regarding the rights of those on it. DNA profiles can be used to identify family relationships or to predict susceptibility to disease. ..An individual should have the right to withhold their DNA if there is no specific need for it in the investigation/prevention of crime.

This report, like the others submitted to the House of Lords Select Committee, showed that  UK government is on a direct path to have all the apparatus in place for a police state – even if that was not what they intend.

Royal Academy of Engineering Report

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Select Committee Report: BCS

August 15, 2008 — 585

As part of the House of Lords select committee investigation into privacy, entitled “The Impact of Surveillance and Data Collection upon the Privacy of Citizens and their Relationship with the State” numerous bodies and individuals were asked to report on their areas of expertise. One of these was the British Computing Society – BCS.

Their official report, submitted in 2007, made several statements and went into a degree of detail about the use of technology in the

“ Whilst BCS supports the need for efficient public services which fully utilise the technology available, and understands the concerns which lead to the increase in surveillance measures, it is extremely perturbed about the increasing (although not deliberate) power of the state vis-à-vis the citizen as surveillance measures proliferate and data collection increases.”

This is not the only report to the House of Lords highlighting the problems with the current surveillance society, the GeneWatch report had similar criticisms,

BCS Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Select Committee Report: GeneWatch

August 15, 2008 — 585

As part of the House of Lords select committee investigation into privacy, entitled “The Impact of Surveillance and Data Collection upon the Privacy of Citizens and their Relationship with the State” numerous bodies and individuals were asked to report on their areas of expertise. One of these was GeneWatch.

The official report (see below), submitted in June 2007, made several damming statements about the UK Governments policy on DNA retention. Including:

  • England and Wales are the only countries in the world which keep DNA from innocent people, for life
  • The permanent retention of all DNA profiles, samples and police records, significantly changes the relationship between the individual and the State.
  • The retention of a persons DNA profile also allows their movements to be tracked, or their relatives identified and tracked.
  • As a DNA match does not provide certainty that the individual committed the crime – e.g a DNA match could be from a passer-by, a witness, another victim,, etc. As a result this causes a subtle shift in the burden of proof and the presumed innocent of people on the DNA database.
  • Despite the huge increase in the DNA database this has not resulted in a huge increase in crime detection.
    • The report shows that collecting more DNA from more crime scene increase the probability of a result, however increasing the amount of people on the database does not significantly increase the probability of resolving crime via DNA.

    • Since April 2003, about 1.5 million extra people have been added to the Database (an increase of over 200%), but the chances of detecting a crime using DNA has remained roughly constant, at about 0.36%.

With the UK Government currently awaiting the results from ECHR for the Marper and S case, the EU writing letters for an explanation of Phorm, the House of Lords critiquing the Prum convention, and the House of Lords select committee publishing reports such as this, when will the government think that its the UK government out of step an not the “pinko liberals”?

GeneWatch Report

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UK DNA Sold to companies

July 31, 2008 — 585

Following a series of freedom of information requests, by the Liberal Party, it has been discovered that sample/information from the UK DNA database have been sold onto other companies.

The National Police Improvement Agency whose role include overseeing delivery of the National DNA Database Service has admitted this stating “After approval by the National DNA Database Strategy Board, [the samples] were made available for authorized research purposes demonstrating clear potential operational benefit to the police in terms of detecting and solving crime. These profiles are completely anonymous and are not identifiable in any way”

Jennifer Wilmot (pictured), the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions said: “The 25 projects that have been approved by ministers include some sinister explorations into ethnic profiling. It is appalling that these Big Brother practices have been allowed to go on unchecked for so long and with extremely limited ethical standards.”

Obviously the samples were identifiable in some way – else they could not be used to research, e.g identifying sex, race, etc

Original Article

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DNA Use – July 2008

July 31, 2008 — 585

Britain now has by far the largest DNA database in the world. It includes an estimated one million people who have never been found guilty of any offence, some 100,000 of whom are children.

About 40 per cent of young black men have been forced to provide samples, compared with 13 per cent of Asian men and 9 per cent of white men.

Genetic material is now taken from all people arrested by police, regardless of whether they are subsequently charged or convicted, and remains on file for life.

Offences covered include begging, being drunk and disorderly, taking part in an illegal demonstration and minor acts of criminal damage caused by children kicking footballs or, in one instance, throwing a snowball.

Detailed consultation on the database by the commission, the Government’s genetic watchdog, found the public believed samples provided by the innocent should be destroyed and those of people convicted of lesser offences removed after a few years.

The damning verdict was delivered by panels in Birmingham and Glasgow. After studying evidence about the database they called for an array of reforms designed to reassure the public that it would not be abused. They concluded that the records of children convicted of minor offences should be removed after a short period. Warning that adults are “criminalised” by having their DNA permanently on record, the panels said the length of time it stays on the database should be proportionate to their offence. “Currently no distinction is made between someone who has been arrested for breach of the peace and someone who has murdered somebody,” the commission’s report noted.

It registered alarm over the “very lax security” protecting the database and concerns over “who had access to samples and profiles and for what purpose”. The panel members unanimously supported a nationwide publicity campaign to raise awareness of the database, using the internet, posters, leaflets and school visits.

The public backed control over the database being transferred to an independent body comprising ministers, police and civilians. Juries should be given better information about DNA in trials, they said, with independent scientists explaining the evidence, in addition to those hired by the prosecution and defence.

The proposed destruction of many DNA samples would be strongly opposed by ministers, who argue that they have proved vital to solving a succession of “cold cases”. A Home Office spokesman said: “The national DNA database is a key information tool which has revolutionised the way the police can protect the public through identifying offenders and securing more convictions. It provides the police on average with almost 3,500 matches each month.” He said there had been 41,717 crimes in 2006-07 which yielded DNA matches, including 452 homicides, 644 rapes, 222 other sex offences and more than 8,500 domestic burglaries.

Full Article – The Independent

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DNA Samples

July 10, 2008 — 585

Below are approximate values for the number of DNA samples collected in the UK

Crime scene profiles added Subject profiles added
1995-96 1,872 32,999
1996-97 5,022 78,899
1997-98 12,546 123,200
1998-99 12,720 227,624
1999-2000 17,116 191,173
2000-01 27,259 373,496
2001-02 39,425 470,016
2002-03 59,265 444,427
2003-04 58,385 431,771
2004-05 57,024 480,337
2005-06 66,499 625,859
2006-07 52,763 667,747
2007-08 48,055 541 ,920

The source for this, and the reason they are approximate are on the Hansard Site

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DNA Errors

July 3, 2008 — 585


DNA evidence  is often reported as being infallible, concrete proof, or a 20 billion to 1 chance of being wrong.

Because of the nature of DNA, the men in white coats, and the sheer power of science this seems to be true; and in part it is. The DNA for every person in the world (who is not an identical twin) is unique, this is due to the sheer volume of combinations of the chemicals that make up a DNA strand. From this it would appear that any sample of DNA can be directly attributed to, with 100%, certainty, to a given individual. In the same that fingerprints can.

However, surety of DNA profiles is not quite what it may seem.

Statistical Errors

According to a report into DNA testing conducted in Texas, “one in every hundred forensic tests performed on the DNA of suspected criminals may give a false result”, this was based on a study of error rates, most of which are caused by human error. The UK were very quick to assure the public that the DNA system worked. Professor Derek Pounder of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Dundee, said: ‘The increased quality controls that have been introduced to laboratories over time are a reaction to errors being found.’.

This response is interesting for two reasons: First it implies that that there have been errors within the UK system, in fact the errors were such a problem that they were common enough to be detected and then to introduce new systems to combat this. Secondly, while the forensic scientests in the UK have been very keen to assure that there are now no longer errors, it is the same body of people who assured the public that they were not wrong about fingerprints. While it is not fair, nor responsible, to tar every forensic scientist with the same brush, it should be recognized that major mistakes have been made and it took years to rectify them.

In 2008 it was reported that there were over  550,000 false, miss spelt or incorrect names on the UK DNA database, which is 1 in 8 entries.

The DNA company Promega, have an old paper on their site that shows the chance of a random match (i.e an error) varying form 1 in 100 billion to 1 in 100,000, this huge variation appears to depend on the technology being used, and does not allow for human error.

Parctical Errors

  • In 1995, in the US, a man was charged with a sexual assault based on DNA evidence. While in the lab DNA samples became mixed. The swab taken from the the victim’s body had the label on it switched  with the label of the DNA for the suspect. From this the lab conducting the work, CellMark, concluded that the swab taken from the victim contained the suspects DNA, after matching it with a known DNA of the suspect, therefore the suspect’s DNA was found on the victims body.  A Cellmark employee, Charlotte Word, caught the error while testifying in court.
  • In 1999 there was a DNA error at the Philadelphia police, which was almost identical to the errors listed above. The picture shows how this information recored by the police.
  • In 2000 Raymond Easton was arrested for burglary, based on DNA evidence. Following a second test, the man was released as it was realized that the wrong man
  • In 2002 a man was jailed for a year for sex offences based on DNA evidence. It was later found that there was an error in the DNA labs, which resulted in a fale positive.
  • In 2003 Peter Hamkin, from Liverpool, was arrested for a murder in Italy, based on a DNA sample from the crime scene and a DNA sample taken from him years before (he was never charged or convicted for any previous offence).  Peter had never been to Italy, had proof he was at a different location, and did not commit the offence. The error occurred due to an error with his DNA profile on the database.
  • In 2006 Kevin Reynolds was arrested for the murder of Sally Anne Bowman, based on DNA evidence.  The DNA evidence was latter found to be an error, he was released and later Mark Dixie was found guilty of the murder. Kevin Reynolds later started legal action against the Met Police.
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Michael Marper and "S" V United Kingdom

July 1, 2008 — 585

The Marper and “S” case is not expected to receive a ruling until September 2008.

“Data, Where is it?” spoke with the ECHR today, and they stated that the results of the case are not likely until September 2008.

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Prum Convention Goes International?

June 15, 2008 — 585

The Prum Convetion is designed to allow the transfer of personal information, fingerprints, DNA, and vehicle dataacross the EU. This exchange of data holds numerous concerns for privacy groups and the ultra liberal House of Lords, who have expressed concern about several parts of the Convention.

Despite this, and the fact that the Prum Convention has yet to start in the UK, the Goverment already appears to be looking to do more of the same and exchange similar data with the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canda.

As the exchange of EU passenger information with the US caused numerous legal hurdles, and was questioned by Information Comissioners around Europe, it is not apparent if the UK Goverment has even considered the legal ramifications (let alone the privacy issues) of sharing millions of fingerprints of people with the US. The UK ICO yet to comment on the latest possiblity of data exchange.

As 100,00s of people on the UK fingerprint and DNA database are innocent and have not been convicted or even charged any crime, the exchange of data with the US will cause a great concern. Due to the recent actions of the US, in particular with their use of “renditon” and “extraordinary rendition” the exchange of such data will cause concern not only for privacy and human rights groups but also those who have been arrested on peace demonstrations or the like, who  may fear they could be put on the dubious US “no fly list”, like similar people in the US, or possibly face rendition.

According to the Guardian “Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists. The US-initiated programme, “Server in the Sky”, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the “war against terror” – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy. Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world’s most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.

The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police.

This information was backed up by Austrialia’s spokeswoman for the Federal Home Affairs Minister who said that: “Australia has a strong interest in working with international partners to combat crime and terrorism. We are constantly reviewing our arrangements to ensure we have the tools to fight crime. As a member of the International Information Consortium, Australia supports ongoing information sharing between law enforcement agencies.”

Equally the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are also in talks with the US to exchange information and Sgt. Deschênes of the RCMP said: “The RCMP is currently working with the FBI, through the International Information Consortium, on a concept that the FBI has proposed to share information on terrorist files called ‘Server in the Sky ”.

The Canadians are probably more skeptical than the Brits on this plan as one of their citizens was deported to Syria for torture by the FBI following information exchange from the RCMP with FBI.

The Canadian Privacy Comissions, Jennifer Stoddart stated “I am concerned at the speed at which it seems to be going ahead and I’m concerned with our relatively little experience with the use of biometric technology”

The stated aim of this exchange of data is purely for fighting terrorism (in the same way as RIPA was), and perhaps to assure people that the this is the case the FBI has included three catergories for suspects on the database.

  • Internationally recognised terrorists
  • Major Criminals and suspected terrorists
  • Those who are the subject of terrorist investigations or criminals with international links

The last catergory could clearly allow a very high volume of innocent people to be put on the database. Also, as the changes in the UK fingerprint and DNA laws show, once the system has been created both access and content will increase over time.

In fact the US are already stating that the database will include records of all wanted criminals in the US, 600, 000 in total.

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Italy has reserveations about Prum Convention

June 10, 2008 — 585

The Italian government has reservations about the Prum Convention/Treaty for several reasons; their primary concern is the exchange of DNA within the EU.

In response to questions put to the interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu by Giuliano Amato Senator, and former Prime Minister, as to why Italy had not joined the Prum Convention he stated,that he had several concerns about the exchange of data within the EU, mainly related to DNA. (The response was dated 17th January 2006)

Giuseppe Pisanu went on to say that Italy does not yet have a law to regulate the DNA database, . He also noted that exchanges of personal data should be carried out in accordance with two international agreements that Italy has not ratified yet. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility of Italy joining the initiative, as the Convention is still awaiting ratification by “almost all” its signatories.

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