Column

"If the American public seems a bit confused about the raging debate of security versus civil liberties--Bush/Cheney versus the A.C.L.U.--it may be because the debate itself has been outpaced by technology. In our post-9/11, protowireless world, democracies and free markets are increasingly saturated with prying eyes from governments, corporations and neighbors. For better and worse, free societies are fast entering the world of total surveillance.... Allowing a computer to read your email may not sound threatening, but with advanced pattern-recognition software, scanning many messages over time could produce a powerful consumer profile. As these machines get smarter and smarter, it may soon be far more worrisome to let a machine'read' your information than to have a human reading it.... The hallmarks of the new digital tool-building age are machines that are increasingly smart, small, cheap and communicative.