With the year 1984 at hand, many people have taken George
Orwell's idea of a society totally lacking privacy and compared
it to United States which is compiling enormous computer
data on all citizens.  There are different types of records on
people, and their use in goverment, business, and medicine may be 
a bit hazy.  Because of the vast size of these files, there is basic agreement
that security measures should be perfected immediately; easy
access, computer crime, and the problems that occur are major
worries.  Controversy centers over the fact that the 
Constitution does not garrentee the "right of privacy"and the
ambiguity of that term.

     Virtually everything about a person can be found in some computer  
file or another.  The following information comprises a short
list: school information (which school was attended and minor infractions in
grade school), SATs, student loan information (which contains
some very personal financial data), medical and military records,
performance reports, job applications, telephone bills (not just
how much you are spending but who you are calling), bank checking
acounts, what land is owned and how much tax is payed on it.  Had
enough?  Well it's not over yet.  Here is some more.
 
On File:the Selective Service............11 million young men.

        the Medical Information Bureau...12 mil. patients.

        Private Investigative agencies...14 mil. reports annually.

        Criminal records.................60 mil. files.

        Credit Bureaus...................150 mil. subjects.

        State moter vehicle agencies.....152 mil. lisenced drivers.

        And U.S. goverment agencies......3.8 billion
names.@Foot(U.S. News and World Report,April 30, 1984. p.46)
This huge amount of data held on people is very
frightening, as William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court
conveys.@Quotation(We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, 
where everyone is open to surveillance at all times, where there
are no secrets from goverment....The dossiers on all citizens
mount in number and increase in size.  Now, they are being put on
computers so that by pressing one button all the miserable, the
sick, the suspect, the unpopular, the offbeat people of the
nation can be instantly identified.)@Foot(Quote from Washington
Monthly, May, 1984. p.12)   Files are divided into three main 
types: Administrative, Intelligence, and Statistical.

     Administrative records are created from some kind of transaction (a
marriage, graduation, buying a car).  The file typically includes
the name of a person, or some other way of identifying him, and
personal data that is self-reported.  These files sometimes serve
as credentials for people, for they include birth certificates,
bank records and diplomas.  Business keeps these files secret,
while goverment make them accessible to the public and other
various agencies.

     Intelligence records come in many forms, such as police files,
and security clearence.  The information is received by
informants making observation on a person, and are seldom