DNA Tracking Technology Identifies Products and People

Amidst the growing trend regarding the use of DNA by governments, corporations, law enforcement and the general surveillance state apparatus, researchers have now developed a system of DNA tagging that can be applied to objects, products, or humans in order to track and identify them at a later date.

Essentially, the idea behind this new technology is that a DNA marker is applied to an object, which is then sent on its way down the supply chain. At any point, the product is able to be identified by examining, amplifying, and sequencing the DNA marker which confirms the origin of the product.

Yet, as with the case of all technologies, what may not be inherently evil in and of itself – or even might provide some potential benefits – will inevitably become a tool of oppression by government and law enforcement specifically.

So, while this new technology could possibly prove useful in terms of the supply chain and shipping concerns, in 2013, any technology that is invented and released will immediately be picked up by the relevant government agencies of surveillance and control. Indeed, even before the technology is introduced to the market for commercial interests, law enforcement agencies are preparing to use the DNA markers for riot and crowd control as well other crime-related situations.

Unfortunately, the use of DNA markers for law enforcement purposes is not a technology that is coming sometime in the future – it is already here. Police in both the United States and the U.K are already utilizing the DNA marker technology for tracking specific items.

For example, John Hewitt, writing for Extreme Tech, explains that some schemes for the new DNA marking technology involve use by law enforcement for the creation of “a DNA ‘fog’ [which]might be used to spray violent protesters when there are not enough law enforcement personnel to immediately subdue the lot of them.”

The DNA Fog is indeed being developed, namely by New York based firm Applied DNA Sciences, the company which has also developed a DNA-based QR code. As Jessie Emspak of Discovery.com writes. The device fills a room with smoke to confuse an intruder. The smoke isn’t just to make it hard for the person to see; it also contains droplets loaded with DNA. If the person escapes, they are still covered with it, and it’s invisible.

The DNA stays on the skin for about two weeks and is hard to wash out of clothing. And even if the burglar ditches her clothes in a dumpster, she’d have to lose the shoes, too.

Should that person get arrested, police would swab them and read the sample using a chemical process called polymerase chain reaction. PCR amplifies the genetic material, essentially making it easier to spot, and is simple and cheap enough that it can be done by amateurs. If the sequence from Applied DNA shows up, then it’s a good bet they were in the vicinity when the DNA Fog device went off.

Yet the DNA Fog technology is not the only application of DNA based tracking currently being used, some of it on a trial basis, by law enforcement both in the United States and the U.K.

In the U.K., the technology seems to be more popular among law enforcement than in the United States (perhaps because the technology lends itself to investigation while American police prefer to shoot first and investigate later if at all). Regardless, U.K. police have access to a special DNA-based “defense spray”, developed by Selectamark Security Systems, which is very similar to pepper spray. The idea is that the agents utilizing the spray would be able to defend themselves while, at the same time, planting a DNA tracker on the individual who attacked them…