'BIG BROTHER' GROWS MORE BOTHERSOME WITH EACH NEW RULE

So Alan Ehrenhalt thinks privacy is overrated, begs for national ID cards,
complains that people use computer encryption and tells citizens to make a
distinction between aberration and routine when discussing privacy in
America (Focus June 6).

Let's discuss the routine.

Employers frequently snoop on employees e-mail, telephone calls and
"private" lockers.

They can demand samples of employees urine without cause.

A person in New York City can be expected to be on surveillance cameras
about 20 times a day. Your Social Security number is demanded for everything
from a movie rental to a drivers license.

If you pay for an airline ticket in cash, expect to be put into a database
of "possible terrorists." Police departments around the country are
clamoring for cameras to spy on "possible criminals and drug dealers." Under
the drug war hysteria, policemen drive around with infrared detectors,
aiming at houses hoping to discover "criminals" growing plants (marijuana).
Thousands are routinely stopped along our nation's highways and often
illegally searched for drugs, even though studies show that drugs are found
in less than 1 percent of those stopped.

Ehrenhalt says that anyone worried about privacy is either paranoid or
guilty of "something." The problem is that there are so many laws now (when
is the last time any government repealed a law?) almost everybody can be
said to be guilty of something.

Ehrenhalt may cheerfully volunteer to place his face under the crushing boot
heel of a government obsessed with knowing everything about everyone, but I
refuse. Perhaps he should move to a friendly place like Singapore and find
out firsthand how benign "Big Brother" is.

Steve Miller, Seattle