On a related note, it is amazing how much information about you exists. Did anyone else watch a PBS documentary about this (sorry, I can't remember the name of it)? In the report, a writer researched how direct mail marketing departments seek out infomation - from going to the county court house and obtaining property and deed information, to using census information to classify your living habits, professional organizations you belong to, catalogs for mailing lists of various interests, etc. Some supermarkets were even testing a system in which your purchases (scanned by the bar code reader) are saved and indexed by your credit card or check! Banks could then sell this extremely valuable information to direct mail houses.
Check out the books "Privacy for Sale" and "The Naked Consumer" for thorough treatments of this topic. Or read the *.privacy groups for a while.... Peter