Remember the old joke that asks: What are the three biggest lies in the history of the world?

The answer is:

* Of course I love you..

* The check’s in the mail…

* I’m from the government, and you have nothing to worry about.

Well, today—the government’s chief spy is giving us PLENTY to worry about. He says the best way to help you stay protected is for him and his cohorts to see and read each and every thing you look at, or send down the Internet.

You can read here in greater detail how the director of National Intelligence wants to poke the government’s nose into your daily business. Mike McConnell says it’s vitally important that the government know everything that’s on the Internet to protect us….

In a post from last November, we told you about a claim made by a retired AT&T technician that in 2003 he helped place a device in that company’s San Fransisco switching office that was diverted and copied to a government computer all e-mails, calls and Internet sites people were accessing… The claim being made then was that there were nearly 2 dozen of those devices around the country..

Now, the government wants to know if my little girls are playing WEBKINS, or if my wife is shopping on-line at Old Navy.

This is a huge privacy issue… We’d never stand for allowing the Government to read the correspondence that comes to us in the U-S Mails—so why should we give up the right to privacy because we conduct life’s business electronically?

Yet, McConnell and his cloak and dagger folks say they should be able to do it. He says warrantless wiretapping “will look like a walk in the park” compared to the plans to do this unprecedented invasion of privacy…

George Orwell got it wrong.

Big Brother isn’t watching you. He’s got us in a headlock—and is searching through our pockets.

—Steve

Link here to the story Steve covered today on NBC-17

Years ago, Charlie Rich had a hit song titled Behind Closed Doors whose refrain was: “Oh, no-one knows what goes on behind closed doors…”

But, that may no longer be the case.

Just ask the government.

The principal deputy director of the office of National Intelligence says Americans have to change their definition of privacy—because it should no longer mean anonymity.

Dr. Donald Kerr

This link here details the story where Dr. Donald Kerr says the only privacy you’ll have is what ”government and business provide for people’s private communication and financial information”…

Sounds OK right?

Well.. Maybe not.

You see that same story details a claim by a retired AT&T technician who says he installed a device in 2003 that ”diverted and copied every call, email and Internet site” accessed via AT&T’s San Fransisco switching office.

And where did this copied information supposedly go?

You shouldn’t need more than one guess.

Yep… A U.S. government computer.

The story claims there’s close to 2 dozen similar sites all over the country doing the same thing!

It appears our friends in Washington are indiscriminately collecting each and every piece of information about us without worrying about those annoying ol’ search warrants…

No wonder they’re telling us we need to change our definition of privacy.

They’ve already done it…

But, you say— at least I can travel where I want without the government knowing where I am…

Ah…. that’s sort of going away too..

Seems a New Jersey university has become the first to want to know where every student is at all times—and is REQUIRING them to carry GPS tracking phones.

The story linked here explains how Montclair State University will use the GPS tracking… The police chief there saying it “allows the students to have an extra pair or group of people watching over them when they’re going from one location to another.”

But, whose going to make sure it’s not used for other purposes?

The government?

Seems to me they’ve already set up the playing field…It’s just a matter of time before their team starts scoring.

So—what do we do?

I don’t have the answer—I’m just asking the question.

If we live with the technology—we live with the potential for its abuse.

In the meantime, I fully expect this post is going to end up in some file somewhere—marked with a notation to keep an eye on the guy who wrote it—because he’s dangerous.

—Steve

Link here to the story Steve covered today on NBC-17

Photo of Dr. Kerr courtesy of: The National Reconnaissance Office