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

The latest issue of Reason Magazine, which touts itself as monthly the print magazine of “free minds and free markets" has personalized each individual's subscriber's front cover. If you are a subscriber you received your magazine with an aerial photo of your subscription address on the front cover.

Just because we have a technology doesn't mean we have to use the technology. Somebody should explain the concept. In an article entitled Database Nation: The upside of "zero privacy" we are presented with the commercial upside of freely flowing personal information. If I were assured that this is the uses to which the data would be put, I could live with it. My personal privacy barriers aren't that high, and the purported benefits can be pretty cool. The issue arises when data is misused. Given that some current estimates say that over 60% of e-mail on the Internet is spam, the optimism of the article is naive at best.

You be the judge.