(Thus putting a lot of folks in the "Obama wants to take over the planet and eat your children" camp in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with the ACLU.)

Other privacy groups were a little . The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation both agree that the feds need to use cookies in some form to improve the effectiveness of eGovernment, .

For example: The CDT/EFF say Uncle Sam should only use the data for measuring Web site performance and not share it with third parties. They want the feds to nuke the data after 90 days, disclose the use of tracking cookies to all Web site users, let them opt out without penalty, and have an inspector general or other third party verify they're following the rules.

All pretty standard privacy stuff, as anyone who's ever read (all 17 of you) would recognize.

On the other hand, the Cato Institute's Jim Harper, whom I would call a classic libertarian when it comes to privacy, says it's here in the 21st century: