A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public health, voter registration, vehicle registration, social security, and statistics.
Canada National DNA Data Bank, a system established under the DNA Identification Act of 1998 to hold DNA profiles of persons convicted of designated offenses and DNA profiles obtained from crime scenes. Profiles may only be used for law enforcement purposes."National DNA Data Bank", Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1 September 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2013. At the end of September 2013 the National DNA Data Bank held 277,590 profiles in the Convicted Offender Index and 88,892 profiles in the Crime Scene Index with from 500 to 600 new samples received each week."Statistics for national DNA Data Bank", Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 30 September 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013. Government Electronic Directory Services, a directory of Canadian federal public servants throughout the country, including names, titles, telephone and facsimile numbers, departmental names, office locations, and e-mail addresses for some public servants."What is GEDS?", Government Electronic Directory Services, Government of Canada, 16 April 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2013. Homeless Individuals and Families Information System, a free client management application created in 1995 to assist service providers in managing their operations and collecting information about the population using homeless shelters, client bookings, provision of goods and services, housing placement, and case management. Its data may be exported and incorporated into the National Homelessness Information System. Personal identifiers are replaced by unique, encrypted identifiers before the data is exported to ensure that client information is and remains anonymous."National Homelessness Information System" , Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 20 February 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013. National Homelessness Information System, a database system designed to collect and analyze baseline data on the use of homeless shelters in Canada. It includes anonymized data imported from Homeless Individuals and Families Information System systems as well as data shared by some cities and provinces that do not use that system. System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval, a filing system developed for the Canadian Securities Administrators to facilitate the electronic filing of securities information, allow for the public dissemination of Canadian securities information collected in the securities filing process, and provide electronic communication between electronic filers, agents and the Canadian Securities Administrator.
European Union Eurodac system, a computerised central database established in December 2000 for comparing fingerprints of asylum seekers and some categories of illegal immigrants and a system for electronic data transmission between EU countries and the database. The database contains fingerprints, EU country of origin, sex, place and date of asylum application or apprehension of the person, reference number, date fingerprints were taken, and the date when the data was transmitted." 'Eurodac' system", Europa: Summaries of EU legislation, 11 August 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2013. Data Retention Directive, a directive passed by the legislative body of the European Union on 15 December 2005 that requires telecommunication operators to retain metadata (type of service, date, time, and size or duration, sender and receiver addresses, ..., but not the audio, video, or digital content) for telephone, Internet, and other telecommunication services for periods of not less than six months and not more than two years from the date of the communication as determined by each EU member state and, upon request, to make the data available to various governmental bodies. Access to this information is not limited to investigation of serious crimes, nor is a warrant required for access."Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC", L 105/54, Official Journal of the European Union, 13 April 2006. Retrieved 20 September 2013."Joint letter to Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, from Dr. Patrick Breyer and 105 additional parties", 22 June 2010. The Data Protection Directive regulates the processing of personal data within the European Union.
Denmark Central DNA Profile Register, a register that contains DNA profiles for suspects and people convicted of offences that could lead to a prison sentence of 1.5 years or more as well as profiles from crime scenes. DNA profile information can be exchanged with other EU member states through Interpol. Civil Registration System (Det Centrale Personregister), a nationwide centralised register of personal information established in 1968 and used by virtually every government agency in Denmark. It contains names, addresses, Danish personal identification numbers, dates and places of birth, citizenship, and other associated information."Executive Order on the Civil Registration System Act" , Executive Order No. 5 of 9 January 2013, unofficial translation by GlobalDenmark Translations, July 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013. Danish National Biobank and National Biobank Registry, two elements of an initiative to allow researchers to link data from individual Danish national registers with information extracted from more than 15 million biological samples anonymously."About the Biobank", Danish National Biobank, 20 March 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2013. The National Biobank Registry gives researchers on-line access to combined data from all the biobanks participating in the Danish National Biobank initiative, including the Danish National Birth Cohort, the Danish Neonatal Screening Biobank, the Danish Patobank, the Danish Cancer Society's project biobank "Kost, kræft og helbred (Diet, Cancer and Health)", the DNB biobank at Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen University Hospital), and the Cancer biobanks (de Kliniske Kræftbiobanker)."Overview and access", Biobank Register, Danish National Biobank, 21 March 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2013."Main registers used", Biobank Register, Danish National Biobank, 19 March 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2013. The National Biobank Registry will link information from the individual biobanks with disease codes and demographic information from individual national registries, including the Danish Civil Registration System, the Danish National Patient Register, and the Danish Pathology Register. By searching the National Biobank Registry it will be possible to look up the number of biological specimens available for patients with a certain diagnosis. Danish Neonatal Screening Biobank, blood samples from people born after 1976, kept at the Statens Serum Institut to test for Phenylketonuria and other diseases, and for DNA tests to identify deceased and suspected criminals."Clinical Biochemistry, Immunology & Genetics", Statens Serum Institut, 28 August 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013."Blodbank som forbryderalbum" (Blood Bank as criminal album), Jens Ejsing, Berlingske Tidende, 16 September 2007, . Retrieved 7 October 2013. Parents can request that the blood sample of their newborn be destroyed after the result of the test is known.
France Carnet B: Created in 1886, the Carnet B was, initially, a list of foreigners suspected of espionage. Prior to World War I, the list was gradually expanded to include all persons likely to disturb public order and antimilitarists who might oppose national mobilization. Those listed were to be arrested in the event of war. In July 1914 the list contained 2,481 names. However, after the assassination of socialist leader and committed antimilitarist Jean Jaurès a few days before the start of World War I, most of the left-wing rallied to the Union sacrée (Sacred Union) government and Carnet B was not used to detain individuals. The maintenance and use of Carnet B was discontinued on 18 July 1947."Carnet B", Wikipédia en français, 14 July 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.Jean-Jacques Becker, Le Carnet B. (1973), Le carnet B: Les pouvoirs publics et l'antimilitarisme avant la guerre de 1914, Klincksieck, Paris, 226 p., . Tulard database: In the interwar period, police officer André Tulard set up a database registering communists and others activists. The database was used under Vichy to register Jews. These files were given to Theodor Dannecker of the Gestapo and greatly assisted the French police in carrying out raids against Jews, who were then interned at Drancy camp before being deported to concentration camps in Nazi Germany.Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime, Michael Curtis, Arcade Publishing (New York), 2003, 440 pp, . Retrieved 15 October 2013. INSEE code: During the World War II, René Carmille created what would become the INSEE code used as a national identification number for people, organizations, and administrative regions. INSEE is the acronym for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies."Insee Number", FamilySearch (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), 7 October 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2013."ID number policy: Report on France" , Fanny Coudert, Study on ID number policies (D13.3), Future of Identity in the Information Society (FIDIS), 14 September 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2013. Répertoire national d’identification des personnes physiques: a national directory for the identification of natural persons, maintained by INSEE since 1946. It is regularly updated through statistical bulletins on civil status changes, drawn up and sent to INSEE by municipalities and containing details of births, deaths, recognitions and marginal notes made in birth certificates for persons born in metropolitan France or its overseas departments. The directory serves four purposes: (i) to eliminate confusion arising from people sharing the same name; (ii) use by tax authorities and pension funds to verify the civil status of individuals; (iii) contributing to health monitoring by sending daily information on deaths to the Institute for Health Monitoring; and (iv) generating demographic statistics to assist in decision-making. It includes information on the civil status of citizens: family name, sometimes the usual name (or marital name), given names, gender, date and place of birth, number of birth certificate, date and place of death and death certificate number for the recently deceased, and national registration number. The National System of Management of the Identities managed by Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Vieillesse, the social security pension administrator, is a copy of this data."Definition: National Directory for the Identification of Natural Persons / RNIPP", National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Retrieved 15 October 2013.