Creepy Government Database Watch

CNN reports has a story on parents who are fighting state efforts to keep newborn DNA on file after the child is tested for genetic defects.

The genetic tests are done without the parents' consent, and some states then keep the DNA profiles for years. State laws vary on length of time the samples are kept, from just a few days in many states; to Indiana and New Jersey's oddly specific 23-year cutoff; to California and Florida, which keep the DNA "indefinitely."

States also vary on whether the newborns' names are attached to the samples, and the procedures by which the DNA profiles are loaned out to academic researchers.