Originally Posted by grouse
Where do you get that idea? If you say, go to Electronic Privacy Information Center's home page at
http://www.epic.org/, you will find news about their efforts to improve privacy both within government and private spheres.
In the private sphere they seem to concentrate on financial institutions due to the importance of keeping financial information private, but you can see they also have a lawsuit against Northwest Airlines and are filing amicus briefs in a case against the Record Industry Association of America.
Just pointing out that there's just as much personal information out there, if not more, that is used for unwanted solicitations by private enterprises, which to me IS a violation of my privacy, than the fears most people in here have about the government gaining personal information. The likelihood of identity theft is more likely from the efforts of private enterprises than those of government, although each is vulnerable.