You've got nothing to fear......

The Daily Mail tells us that:

Youths with no criminal record are being targeted for arrest so their DNA can be logged on a database in the event they commit crimes.

A total of 386 under-18s had their DNA taken and stored by police last year in one north London borough - more than one a day.

An experience officer working for the Metropolitan Police admitted the DNA was being stored as part of a 'long-term crime prevention strategy'.

The officer said: 'We are often told that we have just one chance to get that DNA sample and if we miss it then that might mean a rape or a murder goes unsolved in the future.'

He added: 'Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes.

We are always told that DNA evidence is totally reliable. In law, one of the principles of proof is: beyond reasonable doubt. When these two issues come together in court, which will be dominant? We have all too often seen the massive influence given to so-called expert witness evidence.

Henry Porter in his Guardian blog tells us that:

A lawyer and genetic scientist has raised the disturbing possibility of false matches being made in the police national DNA database (NDNAD). He suggests that the DNA database – which at the end of September 2008 had 4,343,624, samples, including those from hundreds of thousands of innocent people – is now so large that it is mathematically predicted an innocent person will be matched to a crime they did not commit.

Just imagine the false positives if ever there were 60 million people on the database and, whatever happened to the European Court's ruling regarding the retention of the DNA of innocent people?

German privacy video looks at retention of communications data .

The NO2ID national website recommends Alexander Lehmann's video:

Pupil power

Henry Porter blogs about Essex schoolchildren walking out of school on the grounds that their civil liberties were being breached. The story comes from the local newspaper the Waltham Forest Guardian. It tells us that:

PUPILS walked out of classrooms in protest against Big Brother-styled CCTV cameras recording their lessons.

They were so angry with the installation of the equipment at Davenant Foundation School in Chester Road, Loughton, they refused to return until they received assurances it had been turned off.

It meant they missed three weeks of studies and led to the drafting of a petition signed by about 150 of their peers.

And when they did return to the classroom they all wore masks to continue their protest.

Good for them. We may assume they are also angry about their details being put on the huge ContactPoint database without their permission.

ContactPoint petition

The ContactPoint database of the 11 million children in England is functioning but has aroused little protest. However, the Independent Schools Council (ISC) representing 500,000 pupils has always been opposed and states that the scheme is:

" disproportionate and unsafe; likely to be an expensive failure and put at risk more children than it helps."

It makes detailed points regarding security, interference with family life, child protection and well-being.

You can request that your child be 'shielded' but, unless you have a very good reason or are a VIP your request will probably be refused. You can also sign the e-petition because your child matters.

Change of Home Secretary but campaign goes on.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith is to step down from her Cabinet post. When Smith took over the Home Office one of her main tasks was to introduce ID cards and the National Identity Register. Once in post she announced that people were always coming up to her to say they were keen to obtain one!

So who will take over? Also, what next for the NO2ID campaign?

The incoming Home Secretary will have to decide whether to press ahead regardless or make concessions over this deeply unpopular scheme. The former option will inflate government spending and bring more resentment from an increasingly angry public and the latter would need careful examination to see whether there was a real climbdown here or yet more spin.

The NO2ID activists and all those interested in maintaining our civil liberties will be following events with interest.

ContactPoint child database goes live despite security fears

John Leyden writes in The Register:

The Government has announced plans to push ahead with the next phase in launch of a controversial child protection database, despite ongoing concerns about the security of data held on the system.

The delayed ContactPoint system, which is due to include names and addresses on every child under 18 in England, will be accessed by frontline care workers in real-life trials for the first time from this Monday.

Security experts contacted by El Reg remain concerned that information housed on the database might leak out despite ministerial assurances on security provisions that will accompany the roll-out of the directory system.

From Monday onwards social workers, police, schools and health officials will have access to data held on the ContactPoint database. The start of frontline trials, announced in the House of Commons last week by Children’s Secretary Ed Balls (Hansard extract below), follows repeated delays in the development of the system.

Manchester not so keen on ID's

Manchester Radio station Key 103 reports on its web site:

We’ve been on the streets of Manchester getting reactions to the announcement.

Everybody we spoke to said they would not be volunteering for the cards or they couldn’t commit at this point. It’s been a lukewarm reception in the North West.

You can listen to the vox pops here.

NO2ID Birmingham April meeting

This month's meeting will take place on Tuesday 28 April at 7:30pm. As usual, we'll be meeting in the Boardroom at Bennett's Bar, B2 5RS.

ContactPoint reveals details of 55,000 children

Jenni Russell writes in the Sunday Times:

Already ContactPoint is accidentally revealing the details of 55,000 vulnerable children, whose contacts are supposedly secret, every time the database is updated. At HM Revenue & Customs, more than 600 staff have been dismissed or disciplined in three years for snooping and one woman has been jailed for twice revealing the details of a battered woman’s whereabouts to her ex-husband. Local authority staff in 30 areas have been making unauthorised searches on the Department for Work and Pensions database, curious about the employment and income details of people they know. As the databases expand, the problem will only get worse.

Convention on Modern Liberty: Voices from the Crowd

Henry Porter interviewed at the Convention on Modern Liberty

David Davis MP interviewed at the Convention on Modern Liberty

Modern Liberties: Cambridge

A debate from the Modern Liberties event held in Cambridge.

The debate is entitled 'This house believes that civil liberties are under grave threat'. Speakers are David Howarth MP (Liberal Democrat), Professor Andrew Gamble (University of Cambridge), Bill Rammell MP (Labour), Tariq Sadiq (Parliamentary Spokesperson, Labour).

"Something is happening in the hearts and minds of our country"

A round up of the Modern Liberties Convention from the BBC.

British people have been "careless" with their civil liberties, but that is beginning to change, former shadow home affairs minister David Davis has said.

Mr Davis, who resigned from the Conservative front bench last year to fight a by-election on the issue of civil liberties, said the British public had been "casual" with their freedom and privacy in the past.

"They treat it carelessly, like a very old suit that they have had a very long time, [but] times are changing.

"Something is happening in the hearts and minds of our country."

Visit the Modern Liberties website for transcritps of speeches and debates.