Given the trends in law enforcement, it seems that the buildup of DNA databases is inevitable.
While DNA dragnets may reduce the social intrusiveness of law enforcement, the databases themselves pose a new risk to privacy. While it might be a boon to medical care, it also means that insurance companies could price discriminate against people who they deem to be high risk. One's genetic profile could become a new type of credit rating. Already we are finding genes associated with various mental illnesses. Will market forces push for the creation of a socioeconomic underclass by discriminating against the vulnerable, and thus push them into more stressful economic situations, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? There will be conflict over who gets access to such genomic information.
Despite being touted as the next big thing, it's worth remembering that genetic profiling isn't infallible. Lab errors happen.
I've also noticed a certain collective cognitive dissonance in the debate over DNA profiling by law enforcement. Authorities tend to deny that there's racial profiling happening. Yet at least one of the genetic profiling companies involved in phenotyping effectively claims on their website that they can identify and trace the heritable component of what people call race; thus, it can function as a scientific form of racial profiling. There's going to be conflict between those who reject anything which resembles racial profiling in structure and those who push for genetic profiling in all its aspects. I expect technological expediency will win out regardless of sensibilities, since genetic profiling can be touted as something more objective.
Given the overall trend, I can't rule out the possibility of a future out of Gattaca.
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