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I was under the impression, the Data Protection \ Information act, prevented such information being sent out of the country since no one could assure the data wouldnt be lost \ stolen.
While on NPfIT some years ago, one of my explicit service statements was that data would not be sent abroad.
Obviously someone realised that this excluded the 'much cheapness' contractors now belonging to BT and the likes - and the Government let them do it...
"I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
- Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...
I was the PM on a team for an Nhs consultancy that was the first to successfully send a GP2GP message over the BT spine during the sandpit selection process.
When I left said consultancy I was offered a 100k contract with Tata to mentor the team and set up a Primary Health care course in Delhi.
I turned it down, but the most cost effective approach to Data Quality and stewardship is in India.
"I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
- Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...
Cough. I was head of a team that tested a system with 1.5m real patient records. The director in charge took a copy of the system for a demo and took it away, losing his laptop!!!!'n
luckily we got it bAck a week later.
You only ever here of 1% of what really happens. That's why I am so against a national DNA database. Who polices the policeman???
Some live in a ridiculous state of PC denial about what the developing/third world really is but look on the bright side - they could have sent it to Nigeria!
Agree with MF, it isn't the principle of the national DNA database, just the total incompetence with which it wlll be used in a country that tested samples of cow brains for years thinking they were sheep brains. Look at the miscarriages of justice that have happened in the past and studies of mistakes with DNA testing. These are the things that will happen with a national DNA database:
a) Police will be so hooked on the infallibility of the test that, having got their sample, they will not properly investigate further and refuse to consider other evidence.
b) Samples will get mixed up and cross contaminated. A match may only mean a careless lab assistant did both tests and forgot to wash his hands.
c) The possibilities of other errors with methods using tiny samples wil not be properly looked at. One of your hairs is found on a murder victim who lived near you. Were you the murderer or did one of your hairs get on him/her when you came home in the same train carriage?
b) Juries will convict having been assured that chances of a wrong match are 1 in 60 million. Defence will be too ignorant to point out the possible errors, the much smaller values for some related characteristics or the fact that the statistic does not necessarily prove only one person in the UK did it. 32 people won the top lottery prize once.
Some live in a ridiculous state of PC denial about what the developing/third world really is but look on the bright side - they could have sent it to Nigeria!
Agree with MF, it isn't the principle of the national DNA database, just the total incompetence with which it wlll be used in a country that tested samples of cow brains for years thinking they were sheep brains. Look at the miscarriages of justice that have happened in the past and studies of mistakes with DNA testing. These are the things that will happen with a national DNA database:
a) Police will be so hooked on the infallibility of the test that, having got their sample, they will not properly investigate further and refuse to consider other evidence.
b) Samples will get mixed up and cross contaminated. A match may only mean a careless lab assistant did both tests and forgot to wash his hands.
c) The possibilities of other errors with methods using tiny samples wil not be properly looked at. One of your hairs is found on a murder victim who lived near you. Were you the murderer or did one of your hairs get on the real culprit when you came home in the same train carriage?
b) Juries will convict having been assured that chances of a wrong match are 1 in 60 million. Defence will be too ignorant to point out the possible errors, the much smaller values for some related characteristics or the fact that the statistic does not necessarily prove only one person in the UK did it. 32 people won the top lottery prize once.
You're preaching to the converted, the problem is: look at how many people believe in AGW. So basically you're screwed, and just pray it is not one of your hairs.
And before anyone says it won't happen, think on the case of that Policewoman in Scotland, that was with fingerprints. A cursory look by any muppet could see they didn't match, but the experts said they did, and the jury believed them. Just think how much more difficult it will be to prove your innocence when bogus statistics are being bandied about.
My neighbour works in CID. He thinks the national database is the greatest invention ever! He said to me, it's detected and solved so many crimes it's unreal.
My counter argument is, well done, but shouldn't the police prevent crimes from happening in the first place.
He then said to me how would you feel if someone raped your daughter and we had had their DNA but deleted it! Again I replied prevention, plus if it did happen you be better tasked to stop me from murdering them. I always counter the argument by asking the question what would Someone like Hitler do with such a database.
The last weak argument thrown up is 'well if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'!!! Weak weak weak
I fear for the world when technology changes and someone 'really' uses that database!!!
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