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Comment by AndyMcConachie | Hacker News Reader

Happened to me as well. Now the FBI has my fingerprints on file even though I've never committed a crime.

I had a discussion with my Mom a couple years about this and she admitted she screwed up. I can't blame her of course. Especially since at the time there was plenty of FBI propoganda about missing kids terrifying parents and claiming this was a solution.

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In the U.S. we used to collect palm/foot prints on every child within a few days of birth. Newborn fingerprints are difficult to collect, as skin is very delicate. Now we require DNA collection at birth.

https://www.aclu.org/other/newborn-dna-banking

With my youngest I found a clever way to "opt-out". Unfortunately at my child's 6 month pediatric appointment at a private clinic, the nurse charged in and demanded a sample to send in on the spot. She said they couldn't proceed with any services unless they sent the card in, as their license would be revoked unless doing so.

https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/in...

In my state you can REQUEST to have the collection card destroyed after 6 weeks, and before 18 years. But they do not guarantee it gets done. Which is just for the collection card. They make sure to "transfer but not sell" the samples to separate entity between that time, which keeps a copy and digitizes it.

This is bizarre and should not be legal. There is definitely not any public awareness of this practice. Increasingly people are aware of the very real implications of allowing the government and insurance agencies to have your data. Your genes are your data

I remember reading about a country doing DNA collection of every single person born, since the 80s or something like that, leading to that country now sitting on the most extensive DNA database of its kind. I can't remember which country it was though. Searching for "most extensive DNA database" and similar just leads me to various voluntary databases from the US, but I think this database I'm thinking about was involuntary, and every single person in the country is basically registered in it.

Tell us how you cleverly opted out?

California destroys the newborn's blood sample when the parents ask [0], but their privacy policy says that sometimes they don't do it [1]:

> You have a right to ask the Newborn Screening Program not to use or share your or your newborn’s information and/or specimen in the ways listed in this notice. However, we may not be able to comply with your request.

[0] https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DGDS/Pages/nbs/MyBabysB...

[1] https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DGDS/Pages/nbs/nbsnpp.a...

I think most states [edit: apparently only some states] in the US require a fingerprint in order to issue a drivers' license or for a state ID. So I guess you could be somewhat anonymous till you had to get your state ID and then they'd know who it was.

Well this sent me down a tangent since I had never heard of this. Per https://www.cga.ct.gov/2001/rpt/2001-R-0858.htm (circa 2001) the only states that require a fingerprint are California, Colorado, Georgia, Texas although apparently Alabama and Florida used to do so. Feels pretty crazy to me

Oklahoma requires a thumbprint. Electronically.

IIRC, California just takes a thumbprint, so obviously don't use that thumb while committing crimes and you're fine. OTOH, I got the full set of fingerprints (in ink!) and affirmed an oath to uphold the constitutions of the US and California as a condition of working for a school district, so I'm not available for crimes anymore.

I've never had a print taken for a license in four states.

> I can't blame her of course. Especially since at the time there was plenty of FBI propoganda about missing kids terrifying parents and claiming this was a solution.

So long as we keep giving people a pass for falling for this crap they have no incentive not to fall for this crap.

Let's keep the blame on the government which is meant to serve us, not the people who were only doing what they thought was best after having been deceived by that same government.

Holding your mom accountable for a mistake she made when you were a baby isn't helping anyone, holding your government accountable for building a database of our DNA/fingerprints against our wishes helps everyone.

>Let's keep the blame on the government which is meant to serve us, not the people who were only doing what they thought was best after having been deceived by that same government.

At some point the people enable the government. People need to feel stupid for falling for that crap or they will keep falling for it.

>Holding your mom accountable for a mistake she made when you were a baby isn't helping anyone, holding your government accountable for building a database of our DNA/fingerprints against our wishes helps everyone.

This is not how it works.

If people cannot find the will to hold the people in their lives accountable then they will never find the will to hold the government accountable.

I'm not saying the dude has to pistol whip his mom and set the house on fire over it but it'd be nice if people would resent those kinds of decisions made by their parents and other people in their lives (like the aunt who submits her DNA to one of those ancestry services that shares it) a little more.

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