A major threat to privacy he said, is the Administration's plans for what he called a Soviet-style health care system, "And wherever socialized medicine exists, medical privacy is the first casualty."

The administration, he warned, is creating a health care database and ID system that assigns a "unique health identifier" to each person. It will "electronically tag, track and monitor your personal medical information and make it available without your individual, personal consent and authorization to other government agencies, public health officials, researchers, law enforcement officials, courts, lawyers and even employers."

The Federal Health Care Financing Administration, he said, requires home health care agencies to transmit information about their patients for a database called OASIS. This includes medical history, personal characteristics, race, ethnicity, and living conditions, as well as financial and behavior including depression, suicidal tendencies, use of profanity and use of "sexual references." This information is to be taken without the patients' knowledge or consent. He called this "a dagger pointed at the very heart of our privacy and personal freedom."

Technology, he said, makes it easy to monitor every detail of our lives. Private companies will track down and sell your unlisted phone number for $49, your Social Security number costs $45, your driving record $35, your cell phone number $8.

The worst threat to privacy is a massive federal government. "Those in power who seek control over how we live our lives and how we spend our money, are using terrorists, criminals, illegal aliens, welfare cheats, deadbeat dads and students as excuses to impose oppressive government surveillance over our private lives," he said.

The Internal Revenue Service has reams of personal financial information and "a culture of corruption and mistrust unlike any other agency of government." In 1995 and again in 1997, he noted agents illegally snooped through thousands of tax records.

He called the tax code "corruptingly complex" and said, " The only thing we can do is kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope it never rises again to terrorize the American people!"

Privacy is violated by the census, he said. The Constitution, he said, says every 10 years the government must count every person but there is no constitutional authority for forcing Americans to fill out pages about themselves, their homes and finances.

The private sector, he said, should conduct its own polls and marketing surveys and, "Government should get out of this business immediately. "Forbes was critical of plans to issue national ID cards with photographs, fingerprints, and even retina scans. He also denounced plans for a government database to identify and track all legal workers making it impossible to get a job if a name were mistakenly deleted or entered wrong. We must protect our borders and deport those here illegally, "But we don't throw out the Constitution and create a Soviet style police state in the process," he said

The drug war, he noted, has led to abuses including the proposed "Know Your Customer" rule. This required a bank to notify Washington if a depositor made a deposit or withdrawal different from what he usually does. The stated purpose, he said, was to detect drug dealers and money laundering. Again, he warned against discarding the Constitution to achieve a goal.

Both proposals were blocked but, he but warned, "These nutty ideas will be back" and the only way to stop them is to elect leaders who will protect privacy and freedom.

Forbes outlined a ten-point plan to restore privacy:

1. Require a "Privacy Impact Assessment" of every bill.
2. Blocking national health ID cards and shutting down federal medical database with information Washington does not need and has no constitutional right to have.
3. A one-page census form that meets the constitutional mandate of enumeration without amassing information on the personal lives of people.
4. A tax form that can be filled out on a postcard or single page.
5. Permit encryption software for personal or commercial use and not force encryption makers or users to provide "keys" to unlock and read private communications. Encourage development of software allowing Internet users to block web site operators from reading, tagging and tracking their e-mail address.
6. Work to stamp out "identity fraud," stealing someone's personal identification information and committing crimes in that person's name.
7. Block all efforts to create a national ID card or worker database.
8. Appoint cabinet officials, specifically an Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services, committed to protecting the privacy and freedom of the American people.
9. Appoint judges who will strictly interpret the Constitution and strike down laws robbing people of privacy and freedom.
10. Veto any bill that threatens privacy and personal freedom of the people.