Privacy activists lobby Congress for greater Net protections Surveillance and Privacy from Government6/5/2000; 8:32:35 AM April 10, 2000: "Privacy advocates today urged Congress to extend constitutional search-and-seizure rights to the Internet to protect from Big Brother consumers who shop, join groups and bank online."

Uh.... why does Congress need to expand the constitutional protections? They apply already; Congress can delimit and clarify, but I hope the 'privacy advocates' aren't truly pushing for "expansion". We're supposed to already be protected against that stuff.

Later, "An FBI request for additional funds to 'data mine' public and private sources of digital information has set off an alarm in the privacy watchdog community. In addition, the Justice Department has proposed changes to electronic surveillance laws that would beef up law enforcement power to investigate crimes like hacker attacks."

Even in Orwell's 1984, you could escape from the watchers because they were human. How would you like to be watched from by a computer, based on what you buy, how you buy it, when you buy it, what else you've bought recently, and all other sorts of things like that? Better be careful buying bleach over the internet if you're a farmer... if you buy fertilizer within a couple of days of the bleach you might find the FBI at your door if they could have their way.