Then, upon arriving at the airport, the clerk required a photo-ID before issuing me a boarding pass. Air lines allegedly adopted this requirement in response to terrorism. Within a generation, no one may remember when people withdrew their own money or traveled within their own country without justifying themselves. The private sector is rushing to gather personal information on customers. Internet companies, like AOL, share information with government agencies.
Corporations routinely use urine tests to check for drugs.
Social Security Numbers are required business I.D. despite original government assurances that this would not happen. Debit cards create records of users' personal preferences, down to their brand of canned peas and reading choices, and these records are marketable. They are also used in legal proceedings, e.g. Monica Lewinsky's reading preferences. In short, private enterprise is spying on customers and demanding information far above anything required by law. This would not have been tolerated ten years ago.