Information: Just For The Record

I have been hearing a lot about the information gathering practices of people on the internet lately. Having not used a computer previous to October of 2004 I was quite oblivious to many of the applications for which this marvelous tool is used . It might even make the most insignificant among us(me)feel very important to think that someone cares enough to want to know every detail of my life. Where I go, who I talk to, how often, and how much time, money, energy is spent with my 'puter friends. I haven't given this a great deal of thought, yet, but my initial, out of the box response is this: Why, for God's sake would anyone want to know anything about me?
Now, 'you' I can understand them wanting to know something about. Your life probably is multi-faceted, and your world is filled with fascinating knowledge that someone, somewhere would like to know. One of my biker buddies(paranoid by nature)has gone to such lengths to maintain his privacy that his computer has all kinds of programs to block stuff, and firewalls enough to protect his entire neighborhood. He surfs through anonymous hubs and never uses a real E-mail address(unless it isn't his own)when going anywhere on the net. This, then gives me cause for concern. I would think, in my limited knowledge of how stuff works, that the people that are being sought on the net by authorities are the very ones that use evey means at their disposal to not get caught. In other words, guys like the ones who worked out every detail of the 9\11 attack, people who send encrypted pages out to others who are making money nefariously for the support of terrorist activities within the borders of our country, and criminals whose life's work it is to live by despoiling the lives of others. 'Ponses are encouraged. Here is one other thought: A week or so ago all of the law enforcement people in the government; Local, State, and National did a sweep thing where they rounded up all these bad people that were wanted for, you name it they got somebody who did it, crimes. This means that they spent weeks, months, maybe even years locating all these folks so they could nab them simultaneously. Makes me wonder what the bad guys were doing while they were waiting to be nabbed, 'after' the powers that be knew exactly where they were. I do applaud the law enforcement agencies that took part in the "sweeps week" and I do support them in their efforts to keep little old me safe from harm, and I am without a doubt certain that once they found these people they would have picked them up early if they were continuing to be a problem prior to their alotted time of "pickup." Maybe I need to 'not' think about these things so much. As for someone wanting to sell my information out there to somebody else, I can only wish them well. If there has ever been or ever will be an excercise in futility, that would have to be it! One last thought: Maybe I need to do a thing where I share my own thoughts on the news. Something like "Preacher's Views On The News." How does that sound? Have a wonderful day! In Christ's Love, Preacher.