Database Nation

"In a February 2003 Harris poll, 69 percent of those surveyed agreed that 'consumers have lost all control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.'"

From Declan McCullagh's Article 'Database Nation'

May 4, 2004 -- As subscribers pull the June Reason magazine out of their mailbox, something about the issue should look familiar. The magazine published 40,000 individualized covers displaying an aerial photo of the subscriber's home and the surrounding neighborhood.

Inside, the personalization continues. Subscribers can find out how many of their neighbors are college educated and what percentage of kids in their zip code are being raised by their grandparents. An ad for the Institute for Justice shows the number of eminent domain cases in their state where private property was seized and given to private developers. And an ad for the Marijuana Policy Project tells subscribers whether their congressman voted to stop federal raids on medical marijuana clubs in states where they're legal, says Reason Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie.

"Living in a database nation raises innumerable privacy concerns," writes Gillespie in the June issue. "But it also makes life easier and more prosperous. We may have kissed privacy goodbye -- and good riddance, too."