The files stored in GenBank are divided into different groups, such as BCT (bacterial), VRL (viruses), PRI (primates)...etc.
They are generally used for forensic purposes, including searching and matching DNA profiles of potential criminal suspects.
[17] In the UK, police have wide-ranging powers to take DNA samples and retain them if the subject is convicted of a recordable offence.
In order to decrease the number of irrelevant matches at NDIS, the Convicted Offender Index requires all 13 CODIS STRs to be present for a profile upload.
The Department of Defense Serum Repository maintains more than 50,000,000 records, primarily to assist in the identification of human remains.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2003 provided a means for federal courts or military judges to order the use of the DNA information collected to be made available for the purpose of investigation or prosecution of a felony, or any sexual offense, for which no other source of DNA information is reasonably available.
[35] NCIDD combines all forensic data, including DNA profiles, advanced bio-metrics or cold cases.
It was intended to use the data base for finding genetic causes of diseases and creating personalised medical treatments.
campaign various civil rights and data protection organizations handed an open letter[46] to the German minister of justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger asking her to take action in order to stop the "preventive expansion of DNA data-collection" and the "preemptive use of mere suspicions and of the state apparatus against individuals" and to cancel projects of international exchange of DNA data at the European and transatlantic level.
The Israeli database also include an “elimination bank” of profiles from laboratory staff and other police personnel who may have contact with the forensic evidence in the course of their work.
The Kuwaiti government passed a law in July 2015 requiring all citizens and permanent residents (4.2 million people) to have their DNA taken for a national database.
[51] In October 2017 the Kuwait constitutional court struck down the law saying it was an invasion of personal privacy and the project was cancelled.
[54] In Russia, scientific DNA testing is being actively carried out in order to study the genetic diversity of the peoples of Russia in the framework of the state task - to learn from DNA to determine the probable territory of human origin based on data on the majority of the peoples of the country.
Within the framework of this program, it is also planned to include the peoples of neighboring countries, which are the main source of migration, into the genogeographic study on the basis of existing collections.
In Norway and Germany, court orders are required, and are only available, respectively, for serious offenders and for those convicted of certain offences and who are likely to reoffend.
[61] However, after informed debate including opinion from the Portuguese Ethics Council[62] the database introduced was of just the criminal population.
The company was founded by a group of life science entrepreneurs, investors and researchers and its scientific platform is based on work by Amgen’s Icelandic subsidiary, deCODE genetics, which has pioneered genomic population health studies.
[65] The idea of a private company owning public DNA data has raised concerns, with an Irish Times editorial stating: "To date, Ireland seems to have adopted an entirely commercial approach to genomic medicine.
This approach places at risk the free availability of genomic data for scientific research that could benefit patients.
[69] Chinese have begun a $9 billion program for genetic science studying, Fire-Eye has DNA labs in over 20 countries.
Unlike a research center, this is available for Public to store their DNA by paying a minimum amount and four drops of blood.
To address these challenges DNA databases are compressed to save storage space and bandwidth during the data transfers.
[86] For eukaryotes XM is slightly better in compression ratio, though for sequences larger than 100 MB its computational requirements are impractical.
In Denmark the Danish Newborn Screening Biobank at Statens Serum Institut keeps a blood sample from people born after 1981.
UK laws in 2001 and 2003 allowed DNA profiles to be taken immediately after a person was arrested and kept in a Database even if the suspect was later acquitted.
[94] In response to public unease at these provisions,[94] the UK later changed this by passing the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 which required that those suspects not charged or found not guilty would have their DNA data deleted from the Database.
In a judgement in December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that two British men should not have had their DNA and fingerprints retained by police saying that retention "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".
[100] The DNA fingerprinting pioneer Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys condemned UK government plans to keep the genetic details of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in England and Wales for up to 12 years.
Jeffreys said he was "disappointed" with the proposals, which came after a European court ruled that the current policy breaches people's right to privacy.
[2] A 2017 study in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics showed that databases of criminal offenders' DNA profiles in US states "deter crime by profiled offenders, reduce crime rates, and are more cost-effective than traditional law enforcement tools.