NO2ID

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/au ... sfeed=true

DNA surveillance

Naomi Wolf (Comment is free, 16 August) draws attention to the IT developments underpinning face-recognition technology. This is but one of a set of new surveillance technologies made possible by the biosciences. The UK's crime DNA database is the largest in the world, despite the European ruling it must remove the innocent and minors. Less well known is that the police can have access to the bioinformation held on the half-million recruited into the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council funded UK Biobank's DNA records; or that the government has given access to NHS records without informed consent.

...

Professor Hilary Rose
London

Pardon ?

My medical records are supposed to be confidential, when did this happen ?

Where did you get that idea from? There is a difference between "confidential" and "secret" - look it up. You don't really think that, say the police, can have a rifle through your "confidential" medical records. "Ello, ello Fitmeup has some problems with anxiety and depression, better go easy on the questioning then, eh " The police (and other agencies) look up "confidential" medical records all the time; the police even have access to your social services file. Anyway, all these "agencies" work in "partnership" now, just like they did in Stasi East Germany.

There is no such thing as "confidential"/"secret" whenever the Government/Police/GCHQ/HMRC/DWP/State Security/Stasi are concerned. Get over it!