If you ain't got nothing to hide...

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If we're all law-abiding citizens, do we really have anything to be afraid of? After all, we're not talking about thought police just yet, are we? Quite frankly, I haven't done so in these pages in the past, and don't feel overly compelled to do so now. On the other hand, a bit more than two years ago I wrote that I expected to write a column about this issue, so it's certainly been something I've been thinking about (and had time to think about).

But of course the point is that even when we have nothing to hide, we don't relish being constantly and forever public. All of us have driven beyond the speed limit, most of us have shoplifted (only as kids, of course), and I don't know of anyone with access to an online computer who hasn't downloaded copyrighted music over the internet. These may be minor misdemeanors, but if a potential employer checks out a database of our lifelong activities, we might just not get that job. That being the case, even when we have nothing to hide, just how public do we want information about us to be?

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Go to: They've got a little list.