Free Republic

"How do you know you are doing nothing that could be construed as wrong by some state functionary? How do you know you are not breaking some law somewhere? And why are you so implicitly trusting that your government would never do anything evil with the information it has collected on you? "This is not purely an academic matter. The practical implications are profound." Entire article here: http://wp.me/p13mHb-1fH

Link only. Essence is this: Every use of a "Good To Go" electronic pass on the Tacoma Narrows bridge will be retained for 8-1/2 years. Data is available to law enforcement and civil case lawyers. Similar systems exist elsewhere, such as SF Bay Area FasTrak. Means for avoiding the tracking are listed.

What's So Scary About a National ID An emergency funding measure earmarked for our fighting men and women overseas seems an odd place for a sweeping change to U.S. privacy policy. But that's just where House conservatives have tucked their proposal to impose federal requirements on state driver's licenses—a proposal dubbed the Real ID Act. Civil libertarians hate the idea, because in the ACLU's phrase, it "takes us one step closer to a national ID." What's rarely stated is why a national ID would be such a bad thing. Discussion about whether the U.S. needs some kind of federal identification...

WASHINGTON - If you’re among the millions of Americans who took airline flights in the months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI probably knows about it — and possibly where you stayed, whom you traveled with, what credit card you used and even whether you ordered a kosher meal. The bureau is keeping 257.5 million records on people who flew on commercial airlines from June through September 2001 in its permanent investigative database, according to information obtained by a privacy group and made available to The Associated Press....