[justiceseeker93]

One general principle is this: you can't trust government - federal, state, or local - with confidentiality of any personal information. There is a cottage industry out there where government is readily giving out personal data bases to "private" entities, undoubtedly for a price in many instances.

The most common example, perhaps, is Medicare and Social Security. Become a "beneficiary" and you'll be besieged by tons of unsolicited mail from just about every health care organization and HMO you can think of. And when you turn 50, the Social Security Administration will see to it that you get on the (left- leaning) AARP mailing list.

As government grows, more and more organizations have more and more access to citizens' private information, and the zone of personal privacy shrinks until it becomes non-existent.

What's scary now is the possible ramifications of the HIPPA's requirements for medical record electronic databases.

[Chickensoup]

I have a schematic of hippa privacy.
There is no privacy from the government under hippa

[GailA]

Been on it since I turned 50, 17 years. Despite the fact I fill their self paid envelopes up with Traitors, you ruined Medicare.

My husband’s late MIL and his late wife still receive them and they have been dead over a decade. They never purge their list.