LONDON — Europe’s top human-rights court Thursday struck down a British law that allows the government to store DNA and fingerprints from people with no criminal record — a landmark decision that could force Britain to destroy nearly 1 million samples in its database.
Rights groups say the ruling could have even wider implications for the storage of other sensitive and personal data.
The case originated when British police refused to destroy DNA samples of two Britons whose criminal cases were dropped.
Seventeen judges on the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that keeping DNA samples and fingerprints was in violation of people’s right to a private life — a protection under the Human Rights Convention to which the United Kingdom is a signatory. The court also criticized Britain’s use of “blanket and indiscriminate” storage.
In England and Wales, more than 850,000 DNA samples from people with no criminal record are stored in the national database. Samples have come from anyone who has been arrested, regardless whether they were charged, convicted or acquitted. Even the DNA of crime victims has been stored on occasion.
“DNA and fingerprinting is vital to the fight against crime, providing the police with more than 3,500 matches a month, and I am disappointed by the European Court of Human Rights’ decision,” said British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. “The existing law will remain in place while we carefully consider the judgment.”
Human-rights advocates have long claimed that storing the DNA of innocent people is a disproportionate invasion of privacy when weighed against actual convictions using DNA.
The U.S. government plans this year to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency. It also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not — a departure from current practice that limits DNA collection to convicted felons.
People who are arrested but not convicted can ask the Justice Department to destroy the sample.
