Santos, Filipe (2017), "The transnational exchange of DNA data: Global standards and local practices" In Kai Jakobs and Knut Blind (eds.), "Proceedings of the 22nd EURAS annual standardisation condeference. Digitalisation: Challenge and opportunity for standardisation. Verlag Mainz: Aachen. 305- 322. The transnational exchange of DNA data: Global standards and local practices Filipe Santos Centre for Social Studies | University of Coimbra | Portugal | filipesantos@ces.uc.pt Abstract: The creation of systems for the transnational exchange of information raises multiple issues related to the establishment of common infrastructures, protocols and regulation. The development and adaptation of standards is paramount in reaching operational levels of harmonization. This paper focuses on the case of a system for the improvement of cross- border cooperation in the European Union through the exchange information among databases of Member States. The Prüm Treaty and the subsequent Prüm Decisions have established a framework for the exchange of DNA profiles, dactyloscopic data, and vehicle registration data, for the purpose of combating cross-border crime and terrorism. The historical specificity of DNA profiling data in terms of the development of international standards and the sensitivity it represents for data protection regulation constitutes it as a relevant object in order to analyze the challenges raised in the context of transnational cooperation. First, this paper provides an overview of the trajectory and characteristics of DNA as an object of standardization. Second, through interviews with local actors involved in the implementation and operationalization of the network for the exchange of DNA data, the global standards are compared with practices at the local level. The adoption of minimal standards allows flexibility and autonomy at a local level, thus allowing interoperability to exist in a scenario of national differentiation. However, a relatively wide margin of discretion in terms of the routine local operation of the system can create frictions and lead to isolated solutions that can be seen as sub-optimal. Introduction The history of forensic DNA profiling and databasing is built upon the necessity, design, validation and dissemination of standards (Jordan & Lynch, 1998; Lynch, 2002). DNA profiling technologies have, since the inception of its use for individual identification, encompassed multiple laboratorial techniques that have slowly converged into feasible and standardized methodologies (Derksen, 2003). Culturally perceived as the “ultimate” identification evidence in forensic contexts (Lazer, 2004), DNA technologies have been metaphorically described as “gold standard”, the “signature of god”, or “truth machine” (Lynch, 2003; Lynch, Cole, McNally, & Jordan, 2008). However, the trajectory of DNA profiling has had its periods of contention and uncertainty. In fact, at the time of its earlier uses in the 1980s, the absence of norms and standards for the production and interpretation of early profiling techniques led to judicial conflicts about their admissibility as evidence in the so-called “DNA wars” (Derksen, 2003, 2010). These involved, for instance, the judicial challenging of DNA evidence by questioning the techniques and protocols for the production of DNA profiles. Another strategy was to challenge the calculations used by laboratories to declare matches between samples from suspects and crime scenes, namely the probability that the sample could randomly match someone else (Lynch et al., 2008).