In Europe, antipiracy legislation is even trying to make it illegal to disguise the IP address that you're logging on from. And the use of this kind of information is more than theory -- in the U.S., the Web-searching activity of people accused of crimes has been submitted to courts as proof of criminal intent.

And it's not just communications themselves; transactional activity is tracked even more heavily. Consumer credit bureaus record and sell 1,000 columns or so of data on individuals. Almost all of your purchases (i.e., the ones made online and/or by credit card) are matters of record. Even automobile movements are traced in more and more locales, photographically and/or via electronic toll payments.

The rise of two-factor authentication will make this trend even more pronounced, as identification documents take on electronic characteristics. National ID cards are being suggested in many countries, for health care if nothing else. Passports are also being equipped with RFID and/or biometric technologies.

In short, almost every detail of your life can, at least in theory, be technologically captured by the government, if not now, then in the near future. And that's even after we account for the normal snafus of technological progress.

What, then, are the public policy choices? Here are a few: