Just because the voters of a state overwhelmingly pass a proposition doesn't mean it's legal, and that's when a large human rights advocacy group is likely to roll up and file suit. Even then, there may be more than meets the eye, especially when new technologies and scientific breakthroughs got the voters excited to begin with.

There was so much going on during these last November elections, one state proposition didn't get a lot of attention. Another time, another place, and it would have received plenty.

California Proposition 69 passed with nearly 2/3's of the vote, empowering the state to take DNA swabs from anyone convicted of a felony. Not so surprising, but here's the real sinker: Five years from now, DNA would be taken from anyone simply arrested for a felony. Wrong time, wrong place … and you're in the data bank.

The constitutional arguments against this proposition cover familiar and obvious territory: it's the "innocent before proven guilty" concept you learned in grade school civics. And to be fair to the proposition, if you are not convicted of the felony, this new proposition lets you appeal. If you are cleared or at least found "not guilty," you can have your information expunged from California's ever-growing DNA data bank.

But now let's talk about the nature of data banks. The expectation of the very word "bank" leads us in the wrong direction. With visions of yesteryear, it suggests that a clerk can go in, remove the manila folder with your name on it, hand it to you over a counter, and that would be that. But these are digital data bases. It means that they're distributed. There are multiple copies in multiple locations. Anyone who ever pulled your data while doing a police-department-google can easily have your data on their own computers, and even ship it on to others.

The simple fact of the matter is that once you're in a data bank - any data bank, it's hard to get out.

Ever had a bad entry on a credit report? Ever try to do something about it? In the old days, they used to say, "If you want to live a long and healthy life, stay out of hospitals and stay out of the justice system." In the future, we will likely add: "And stay out of data banks."

But let's turn back to what swayed the voters in the first place. It wasn't the single innocent citizen who might live a life of data hell because he or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got arrested. Certainly, part of it was that moldy list of unsolved crimes that have new life since the existing DNA data bank began to kick in. And if we consider that the vast majority of felony arrests involve some pretty shady characters, why not have a little look-see? If we can avoid the further victimization of society, don't we have a responsibility to protect it?

But let's not get stuck here. Technology and science are moving fast and furiously, with or without the constitution. Since we're shedding cells all the time, in the not-too-distant future, DNA information will clearly become easy to get - and we may not be able to stop anyone who wants it.

I say we should be time on that: Yeah. What are we gonna do then?

I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.

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