Mass DNA sweep in privacy-loving France: Why no backlash?

To identify a rapist, police have asked more than 500 men and boys at a school to give DNA evidence. So far, the French public seem supportive.

The French fiercely protect their right to privacy so much so that the country has famously been butting heads with American Internet giants like Google to protect French users from potential intrusions into their private lives.

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But when it comes to criminality, the views are much laxer. In a move that would be sure to provoke anger in the US and raise tough constitutional questions, police are asking more than 500 males at a private Roman Catholic high school to submit to DNA testing to help find a rapist.

Because of its scale this isthe first-ever sweep of a school the action has garnered national attention, along with some concerns about civil rights violations, especially of children. But the school and its student body have largely submitted to the investigation without further fuss.

Isabelle Wekstein, a lawyer and expert on media privacy, says that although the French cherish their privacy, this case doesnt seem to have produced mass outcry, most likely because of its criminal context. This is not about the paparazzi or the life of the president, but of a perpetrator and a child victim. This has to be put in the context of the rape, she says. I can understand it if this is the only way for the police to do their job.

All the male students and employees at Fenelon-Notre Dame in La Rochelle, on the western coast of France, have been asked to provide police with DNA samples by Wednesday in an effort to solve the rape of a 16-year-old student. The girl was raped in a bathroom on the premises this fall, and with the lights turned off she couldn't identity the perpetrator. All other efforts to find him have failed.

"Nobody has objected, and the samples have been taken in a calm and orderly fashion," local prosecutor Isabelle Pagenelle told reporters. "To say this is a first does not automatically mean it is not a legitimate operation. We have nothing to go on except the DNA.

Europe has more comprehensive privacy laws than the US,and France very actively investigates breaches. France takes data privacy very seriously, says Pascale Gelly, founder of Paris-basedCabinet Gelly, which specializes in privacy law.

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Mass DNA sweep in privacy-loving France: Why no backlash?