Where is George Orwell?

It may be 2010, but it soon could be 1984, as in Orwell’s famous novel about Big Brother. But I’m not talking so much about an intrusive big government (although that’s a legitimate topic). I’m talking about businesses.

Read this story in the Wall Street Journal. It reports on a Journal investigation into the sophisticated data being collected on you everywhere you go on the Internet.
I’m assuming you all know about “cookies,” and that few of you would be surprised to know your shopping habits are monitored. It’s no surprise that Amazon or eBay can give you a relevant list of things you would be interested in buying every time you log on.
But did you know this? “Some tracking files can record a person’s keystrokes online and then transmit the text to a data-gathering company that analyzes it for content, tone and clues to a person’s social connections. Other tracking files can re-spawn trackers that a person may have deleted.”
That’s from the Journal, which also reports that some companies, “build personal profiles that could include age, gender, race, zip code, income, marital status and health concerns, along with recent purchases and favorite TV shows and movies.” These folders contain virtually everything but your name.
One member of Congress says this is like buying something at a store in the mall, then having that sales clerk follow you around to see everything else you buy.
I’m not so worried about businesses gathering information about my buying habits, as long as it is used to help me find other things I really would like to buy. But the larger idea of this technology is troubling. What would happen if the government, or some nefarious organization, began using such programs for other purposes? (This story shows this may be happening already.) Should Congress put a stop to this?