Databases

President Obama may have given credence to a relatively new but questionable law enforcement practice that the rest of the developed world is starting to shun: taking and retaining DNA samples from individuals arrested for a crime but not convicted. That is, putting innocent people's DNA in criminal databases. During an interview with the president last month on the television program "America's Most Wanted," host John Walsh enthusiastically supported the expansion of this practice in the United States, saying, "We now have 18 states who are taking DNA upon arrest.

WASHINGTON - More than 2,000 people have been freed from prison since 1989 after they were found to have been wrongly convicted of serious crimes, according to a new National Registry of Exonerations compiled by University of Michigan Law School and Northwestern University. Its sponsors say it is by far the largest database of such cases, and they hope it will help reveal why the criminal justice system sometimes misfires, prosecuting and convicting the innocent. "The more we learn about false convictions, the better we'll be at preventing them," said Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan law professor.

Educators and a state legislator are calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to restore funding to two computer databases that track the performance of students and teachers and could provide insight into the effectiveness of key academic programs. In his latest proposed budget, Brown called for cutting nearly $3.5 million in funding for the two programs, which have long been in development. The student database, known as CalPADS, went online almost two years ago and was about to start producing statistics on the number of students who dropped out over the last four years.

In the face of privacy concerns, the Los Angeles Police Department has agreed to change the way it collects information on suspicious activity possibly related to terrorism. The department, after coming under fire from civil liberties and community groups, will no longer hold on to so-called suspicious activity reports that the LAPD's counter-terrorism unit determines are about harmless incidents. Until now, the department stored the innocuous reports in a database for a year.

The National Institutes of Health quietly blocked public access to databases of patient DNA profiles after learning of a study that found the genetic information may not be as anonymous as previously believed, The Times has learned. Institute officials took the unusual step Monday and removed two databases on its public website. The databases contained the genetic information of more than 60,000 cooperating patients. Scientists began posting the information publicly eight months ago to help further medical research.

They are selling secrets along the shining corridors of the Savyolovsky Market: Unlisted numbers. Tax returns. Customs declarations. Wanted lists. Police reports. Car registrations. Business permits. Wrenched from the bowels of government by the forces of runaway capitalism and corruption, the hush-hush databases have made their way to this market in central Moscow where the windows of tiny shops glitter with cellphones, pirated DVDs and porn. Compressed on discs, frozen in Cyrillic letters, is a trove of petty squabbles and personal tragedies that make up the fabric of this vast and often lawless land.

Counter-terrorism analysts still lack the data-search tools that might have kept a bomb-wearing Al Qaeda operative from boarding a Detroit-bound airliner nine months ago, and probably won't have them any time soon, U.S. officials acknowledge. At the same time, officials say the terrorist threat against the U.S. is becoming more complex, with a greater risk from home-grown militants whose low profiles make sophisticated intelligence analysis more important than ever. "It frustrates me," said former Republican New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who co-chaired the Sept.

Consumers looking to compare doctors and hospitals are getting a new resource as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launches an online state-by-state directory of healthcare providers. The directory features an interactive map of the 50 states that consumers can click on to access 197 state-level and 27 national quality databases set up by nonprofits, health plans and government agencies nationwide. Though some of these databases have been available for years, such directories have been proliferating as patient advocates, healthcare leaders and public officials intensify efforts to improve the quality of care that Americans receive.

Less than three years after the last major revision of its domestic surveillance guidelines, the FBI is preparing to loosen its restrictions on monitoring Americans. If this is not halted, we might find our privacy eroded beyond repair. Agents are already free to search the public Internet and the federal government's vast and growing databases for information on groups or individuals — even if they aren't suspected of wrongdoing — without approval from a supervisor. Under rules implemented in 2008, they can go still further, digging up information in broader commercial databases, or consulting state and local law enforcement records, provided they open an "assessment.

Regarding "Your Shows of Shows," by Rick Du Brow (May 2): I guess the most inspiring thing about Du Brow's prime-time dream team is that in the near future, with 500-channel interactive random-access programming databases to choose from, we will all be allowed to don our thinking caps and formulate our own prime-time lineups. Who needs network programming executives? Now . . . where's "Seinfeld"? ANDREW TILLES Los Angeles

It took 15 years, but a group of hardy volunteers has completed a modern-day Doomsday survey of London's public open spaces - 2,500 gardens, parks, squares, churchyards and cemeteries. Suitably for the 21st century, the result is not a book but online in a thoroughly searchable website with potted histories, opening times and transport info. It's a terrific resource for anyone visiting London, especially this summer when you'll need some tranquil retreats from Olympic hustle and bustle.

The largest wireless carriers are banding together with regulators and law enforcment officials to launch an effort to make stolen cellphones and other mobile devices as useless as an empty wallet. The goal is to cut down on increasing thefts of smartphones by making them less appealing to criminals. AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday they will create a central database to track stolen devices and prevent them from being reactivated.

Major wireless carriers are teaming up to combat cellphone theft, and there are some cities in the U.S. where smartphone owners should be doing cartwheels. The FCC on Tuesday morning announced a new effort with top wireless carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, to create a central stolen-phone database. The move will likely benefit all cellphone users, but some cities in particular have a huge problem with phones that go missing -- Philadelphia tops the list. Seattle is second, followed by Oakland and Long Beach in California, according to a San Francisco-based mobile security firm.

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest wireless carriers are banding together with regulators and law enforcement officials to launch an effort to make stolen cellphones and other mobile devices as useless as an empty wallet. The goal is to cut down on increasing thefts of smartphones by making them less appealing to criminals. AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless,T-Mobile USA andSprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday they will create a central database to track stolen devices and prevent them from being reactivated.

California cracked down this week on online dating sites - and it's about time. Now federal authorities should recognize that running a website doesn't entitle you to be an absentee landlord and that the EBays and Craigslists of the cyber world are ultimately responsible for whatever skulks into their domains. State Atty. Gen.Kamala D. Harris announced an agreement stemming from a lawsuit filed last year by a Match.com user who was attacked on a date with a man who turned out to be a repeat sex offender.

The identity and motive of a gunman who opened fire in the lobby of a Pittsburgh psychiatric clinic remained shrouded in mystery Friday, a day after the attack that left him and a therapist dead and seven people wounded. As of Friday morning, officials could say only that the gunman was a white male. No age has been determined. Efforts to run the man's fingerprints through national databases have so far turned up no matches, according to the Allegheny County medical examiner's office.

When the Secure Communities program was launched by the federal government in 2008, it was billed as a way to find and deport immigrants with serious criminal convictions. In the three years since then, it has become clear that the program has instead targeted many non-criminals. And recently it was revealed that the program has also managed to ensnare more than 3,000 U.S. citizens as well. Indeed, in a news conference last week, civil rights activists identified four U.S. citizens from Los Angeles who were mistakenly detained under the program.

Opening a new front against the American banking industry, New York sued three of the nation's biggest mortgage servicers over their use of an electronic database that, according to the Empire State, has resulted in widespread deception and fraudulent foreclosure practices. The suit alleges that employees of the three institutions - Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. - filed false and misleading actions in New York and federal courts using the controversial Mortgage Electronic Registry System, undermining the state's foreclosure process and public records system.

The student's admissions essay for Boston University's MBA program was about persevering in the business world. "I have worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships. " Another applicant's essay for UCLA's Anderson School of Management was about his father. He "worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist.