Reply #22: It's a question of what information is obtained and kept. [View All]

[Igel]

They might just keep the kind of information that they use in court cases and then chuck the actual sample. This doesn't include the kinds of genetic information that insurance companies would love to have. While it might lead to abuse--you could fake a sample to make sure somebody's arrested, as soon as the person's arrested another test could be run to show that the database is correct or corrupt. Since the test would have to be run anyway, no problem.

Sure, the information could be used to track or trace people. Names are good for that, too. But it requires getting a sample from the person being illegally tracked or traced, and that would be, well, illegal. If it's not illegal, then the information could be obtained and all that's missing is the first step in the person's movements.

If they keep each sample, properly labelled, that would take up a lot of room and resources. They might do it, and but it would mean having to process a lot of samples in a short time later. While the lab comissioned to analyse 5.9 million samples for the X number of genes associated with diabetes might love the contract, I can only imagine the nightmare when the contractor's told he has 6 months to produce all the data.