Back in 2013, then-Justice Minister Judith Collins signed a deal with the Five Eyes spying network allowing them free access to our fingerprint database. DNA data was supposed to be the next stage of that deal, but good news: it has fallen through:
New Zealand has been left out of an agreement that lets the other Five Eyes nations search each others' DNA databases.
Australia and the United Kingdom have signed a memorandum of understanding and the programme will also include the United States and Canada.
[...]
However, a police spokesperson said New Zealand had not been asked to be part of the agreement, as current law does not allow for DNA data sharing.
Good. The Five Eyes - or the "Quintet" as they term themselves when they're using their Attorneys-General and Justice Ministers to put on a friendly face - are a criminal conspiracy against the privacy of the world. The idea of giving them free access to our DNA data and other biometric information is monstrous. less information we share with them, the better.
Unfortunately, given the way these things usually work, we'll just see the government ram through a law-change to allow international DNA sharing. But then it will be perfectly obvious who is pulling the strings and who is writing our laws.
