The FBI is in the process of compiling a database of highly personal information under the guise of law enforcement. But where will it stop? What is to keep them from gathering information on all citizens. Would you be willing to submit to an eye scan or DNA check for a routine traffic stop? Neither would we. Big Brother is here, folks, get used to it.

Maybe you missed it in the run-up to Super Duper Tuesday, but CNN and the Associated Press reported last week that the FBI will soon award a $1 billion, 10-year contract for construction of an electronic file that would store not just fingerprints and DNA, but a vast compendium of other physical characteristics. We're talking eye scans, facial shape, palm prints, scars, tattoos and other biometrics, all for the purpose of identifying and capturing bad guys.

But at least one privacy advocate thinks even good guys -- and gals -- have cause for concern. Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project, told CNN, "It's the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated.''

I know what you're saying and it makes a certain amount of sense: If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Well, I haven't done wrong, but it worries me just the same.

Still, I am forced to admit that in a way, there is nothing new here. The government has for years collected fingerprints -- not just of criminals, but also of certain job applicants. And no one raises any concerns about that.

What's happening now, it could be reasonably argued, is only a high-tech extension of that. Except that instead of just your fingerprints, the government will also have on file the shape of your iris, that scar from your childhood appendectomy, and the butterfly tattoo on your inner thigh.