Is the government tracking you? They may soon be. Sierra Times notes that "smart stamps" that are being planned by the U.S. Postal Service will not only track the mail, but can also track individual senders.

"Smart stamps," so-called because special digital codes and information about individual senders is embedded into the stamp - aren't widespread yet - but may be soon.

Those with privacy concerns, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, have alerted consumers about a recent government report urging the U.S. Postal Service to create the stamps to track the identity of people who send mail.

After the anthrax scare, the government has a genuine interest in identifying the culprits. However, rather than rely on detective work after a crime has been committed, they want to punish everyone for a few bad apples.

I wonder how the post office can afford to take on such a venture. Their cost overruns have resulted in several recent hikes in the price of stamps. How much will it cost to start embedding smart chips in each stamp, and develop the tracking system hardware and software. I also wonder if the chips will be embedded in all stamps, or if cheaper 1-cent stamps will be exempted. If so, a terrorist need only paste a bunch of 1-cent stamps onto an envelope or package to avoid tracking. It may raise the suspicion of postal employees, but chemical and biological attacks are out there to cause panic, and would still be effective even if they don't reach their intended target.

Of course, a government database cannot be far behind. Soon they'll have all sorts of "marketing" data about each and every citizen, where information about each piece of mail, sent or received will be stored ad infinitum.