This probing account of the erosion of privacy in America shows that we are often unwitting, if willing, accomplices, providing personal data in exchange for security or convenience. The author shows that the personal data that we make available to virtually any organization for virtually any purpose is apt to surface elsewhere, applied to utterly different purposes. As long as we willingly accept the pursuit of profit or cutting government costs as sufficient reason for intensified scrutiny over our lives, then privacy will remain endangered.