Letter to the editor

There are many functions in government, especially security- and defense-related, that should not be available on the Internet.

Initiatives to make everything available via the Internet are both an invasion of my privacy and a security exposure that could endanger lives and leave individuals open to identity theft, etc.

When even off-line data can be stolen, such as the data from TriWest Healthcare Alliance ["DOD examining health records security"], what makes the government so certain that my personal data could not be deduced from all the various places it currently exists?

The federal government knows me (taxes, security clearance, government employment records); my state knows me and my children (taxes, university system, vehicle registration); my county has files on me and my family (taxes, community college, voter registration, jury duty list); my city knows me (taxes, voter registration, schools,sanitation, utility hook ups); and the local utilities all know about my family.

One person doing a determined search could expose information that would make a telemarketer's heart sing, much less an enemy of this nation. What is the rush to convert every bit of information into electronic digits?

Until a means to link my information only to my DNA signature exists, I don't want to inject any more e-information about myself into the system. I'm not particularly paranoid, just realistic about the siren song of big bucks to be made by selling my personal information (legally or illegally).

Name withheld by request