I started using Internet computers in the public library. The privacy and security situations were deplorable even before the anti-terror initiatives of the last 5+ years. It put me to thinking about how much personal information should be accessible or too easy to get, not only by goverment agencies and the firms they hire, but by commercial opportunists, mischief-makers, and even stalkers. Now, when using a home computer as a non-expert, I notice which web sites tell us as much as they should about their security and their privacy policies.

I hope those who plan or execute harm through terror operations or criminal conduct do get caught, but I do not find justification for the collection of all that can be known about everyone. There are many who still proclaim that you only need to worry if you have something to hide, but they like the rest of us don't know what information has been collected on themselves and whether it is accurate.

Collected personal information is not used only by the FBI, and does not merely determine who'll get raided, questioned, or specially surveilled. What is collected can affect whether one is placed on a watch list or a no-fly list, or whether one can cross an international border. In the private sector, collected personal information can affect hiring decisions, credit-granting decisions, and insurance-provision decisions.

We should not only use the vote, where possible, against overreaching measures in the name of security or crime-fighting, we should also look carefully at all policies and practices of gathering personal data; that applies especially to web sites, such as forums and blogs, to which we post or comment. And we should not forget that some data-gathering entities, public and private, will give up confidential personal information merely upon being asked to provide it, without justification or compulsory process.