thanks for those links, SRS---they serve to remind me of the most basic of rules:

"Being in business seems to bring people closer to the attitude that ANYTHING goes when $$$$ are involved...and the more $$$, the fewer compunctions they have!"

the same sort of rule seems to apply to love, sex, and national security. And it is the case that those who favor less freedom and MORE interlocked databases are the ones who work hardest to obtain positions of power in politics.

The trend is toward conservative, narrow, restrictive, controlling, intrusive...etc., policies and practices--all under the guise of 'security' and 'public interest' and 'ease of use'...............today, it is your name on a grocers list of who likes toothpaste "X", tomorrow, it is the FBIs ability to follow you from cradle to grave and find you anywhere and any time.

So far, there is no movement to install a GPS finder chip in each newborn...*wry grin*