No place to hide

I heard this report on NPR on the way home from work last night and I found it both fascinating and downright scary with regards to personal freedoms as they are applied to the war on terror and the Patriot Act. I'm no fool. I know that data is collected every time I make a transaction, payment, apllication, etc. and it is stored in databases. But the thought that this guy goes into his home office and joins some database tables together via a remote connection to his office super-computer and, Voila! - Well, that's just downright Orwellian. Listen if you dare...

Report Summary:
Even as the Bush Administration went hunting for terrorists overseas after September 11th, the government was also looking for them here. One industry was more than ready to help. Data management companies had spent the decade before September 11th collecting billions of records about almost every American adult. In his new book, No Place to Hide, Robert O'Harrow looked into the data industry in this country and its new relationships with intelligence and law enforcement agencies. He worked with John Biewen from American RadioWorks on a companion documentary. In this report for Marketplace Beewin traces the transformation of a man named Hank Asher (pictured) from run-of-the-mill tech millionaire, to a player in the war on terror.