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far-fetched you say?
John Lennon, Martin Luther King, and Jesse Jackson would prove you wrong as the government surveillance boys were on them for years like white on rice - and for nothing more than being active war protesters. This spy technology poses a genuine threat to freedoms of U.S. citizens in ways that could easily transform our "democracy" into a bonafide oligarchy in less than two decades at the current erosion rate of our privacy rights. :ess than a decade ago we learned that the government was sending agents to public libraries across our country to keep tabs on who was signing outr books on such topics as socialism, labor unions, and politcial reform. The privacy invasion is growing bolder with time.

As for your computer, there are only a handful of ways that you can make life difficult for hackers and feds alike. First and foremost, stopping using Explorer as your browser which is the easiest to exploit. Mozilla's Firefox is far safer. Off the shelf spyware is great for keeping petty hackers at bay, but not the feds. For them you need professional help in the form of commercial "intrusion detection software" that quickly detects sniffer activity and preferably those not manufactured in the U.S. without the "back doors" mentioned above. Multiple firewalls are good but an external firewall device like Alpha Shield or Watchguard are even better. When it comes time to upgrade your computer, consider a MAC as a safer replacement. The new MACs can run most PC programs anyway. Of course, dial up users are a bit less vulnerable than high-speed which leaves the door open 24/7, so if you have high-speed, disable your connection whenever you are not actually on line. This is not a guarantee the snoops won't get in, but at least you limited their window of opportunity. Lastly, if you have a choice between DSL and cable ISPs, go with the cable ISP since current laws make it harder for the feds to access your computer through TV cable lines than the telephone lines used by DSL.
Indeed, If you are an activist of any sort, even an environmentalist, a animal rights volunteer, member of the ACLU or similar organization, a convicted felon, of Arab descent, wrote any anti-war letters or material, or rant regularly at the local pub, you can safely assume that your computer was already compromised and seek out a professional IT tech to scrub it clean for you. Even writing an article like this one would do the trick. Paranoia? No, actually I stay in touch with a few

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