> Well. At least they could have. If they really wanted to. Or anybody else.

You're lying here. I guarantee that you, LargoLasskhyfv, do not even have the ability to keep a nationwide database of fingerprints and DNA, and of course you couldn't bear the expense of physically collecting a DNA profile or the fingerprints of everyone in the country no matter how much you "wanted to." Yet, you are a member of "anybody." Are you just an outlier?

Well. Lemme try to explain. Starting with fingerprints, collecting them on an individual basis is not that difficult. From the handles of the shopping cart, for instance. Maybe better if they had been wiped clean beforehand by somebody, but since Covid many shops actually had their clerks, security doing that generally. So you'd just have to wait, and grab that one interesting cart, and take the prints off of it. By several means, there should be apps possible, for certain phones, with certain (flash)lights, doing that. Otherwise more convential means are available. Still fast, with commonly available one use supplies.

Some fun thing from 2008 comes to mind, where people associated with the german Chaos Computer Club took the fingerprints of the Minister of the Interior from a glass, and published them :->

So this is really not that special.

More special, but not impossible would be the large scale gathering of fingerprints in shops, but again, that should be possible during scanning of the stuff you've put on the belt, and during scanning of the bills, for counterfeit checks.

Analyzing your genes from generally collecting particular matter raining out of your personal cloud may seem like science fiction now, but it's not that far around the corner.

OTOH, wiping them of some surface someone has seen you sneeze at is possible now. Just not that cheap.

I'll start worrying about that stuff when they start using that stuff. But they aren't right now, and the odds are they never will. The cost/benefit of doing so doesn't work out.