The Washington Post has a depressing article today about the all-pervasive nature of modern security. Almost every inch of your life is tracked, mostly to allegedly protect you, although it wouldn’t take much for someone with evil on his mind to really mess with your day.

The article caused me to stop and think about how carefully my life is tracked, particularly since I spend so much time online. Let’s see: Get up in the morning, get ready for work, drive to work (‘black box’ in car tracks driving habits; GPS in cell phone discloses location; cameras are all over the Beltway). Arrive at work and put in a day on the job (cameras everywhere; every keystroke on the computer logged; phone calls logged; email saved for years). Head home at the end of the day and stop at the store on the way (more Beltway cameras, more potential GPS tracking, more black box data, plus credit card and grocery store ‘discount card’ records of my purchases). Watch TV (every DVR program tracked by cable company, which allegedly only ‘compiles’ data en masse) or surf the Web (tracked to a fare-thee-well). Go to bed (nothing tracked as far as I know).

It’s enough to give a man pause.