There are any number of what are typically called "Information Brokers" who horde information purchased from various vendors and facilities all over the country, probably all over the planet.

If you use a check or card to pay for your groceries, there is a database with your SSN on it that lists what you buy. Think of the demographics that could be garnered from what you (or your wife) buy while grocery shopping.

Every medical facility you have visited over the course of your life, probably excluding small-town doctors and the like, have long-since sold the data on patients that they have collected to the same types of places.

Privacy statements on websites were just ruled to be invalid "Because nobody reads them anyway".

www.nbc4com/consumer/3705518/detail.html]http://www.nbc4.com/consumer/3705518/detail.html

Check out people like Information America. Don't expect them to be forthcoming about what they do unless you are a purchasing agent for a very large company, or otherwise a "someone". Also do not expect them to contact you, or to have a public website that you can buy directly from, although they apparently do have some of their information available to the general public at www.knowx.com - the general public has been aware of them (and many of us have personally seen and KNOW them to exist) - groups.http://groups.google.com/groups?q="information%20america"&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wg so if you think for a second that there is not a collective, nearly complete compendium of your life available to law enforcement, and whoever elite can afford to pay for it (or whoever might have access to a switch through whatever means...).

Big Brother is old news. The scary part is that now we are being made to WANT him watching us.

The scary part to ME is that I might actually me so insecure that knowing he is there makes me feel better, in a way.