Everyone has the right to privacy. Do you? It all depends on whom you ask and who wants to know.

It's easy to make assumptions about privacy. It's much more difficult to know where the limits of privacy begin and end in the Age of Information.

Quick. Jot down all the numbers that are used to describe you. Start with these:

• Social Security number
• street address and postal code
• driver's license ID number
• telephone number
• e-mail account and fax numbers
• bank account numbers and personal identification numbers for banking machines
• credit card account numbers
• health insurance number
• medical record numbers at your doctor's and dentist's office and any clinic or hospital you've ever visited

And that's just the beginning. If you've ever served in the military, applied for citizenship or a passport, received a student loan, applied for a job, bought or rented a home, paid taxes, married or divorced, had any conflict with the law or involvement with the police, borrowed a library book, cashed a check at the supermarket, signed up for a frequent-flyer plan, rented a car, donated money to a charity or political candidate . . . somebody has a database profile of you.