DAVID LAZARUS / CONSUMER CONFIDENTIAL - Public's privacy is on the line

At least that's the word from one of the government's top intelligence officials, who has redefined what constitutes an intrusion into people's lives. Because no one's anonymous in the age of the Internet, this official argues, privacy is basically what the government and the business community say it is.

"Protecting anonymity isn't a fight that can be won," Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, said in a speech last month at an intelligence conference, the contents of which only now have come to light. "Anyone that's typed in their name on Google understands that."

Privacy, he concluded, "is a system of laws, rules and customs with an infrastructure of inspectors general, oversight committees and privacy boards on which our intelligence community commitment is based and measured."

This Orwellian outlook comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on whether telecom companies should be granted immunity for assisting the Bush administration in its warrantless spying program.

To see whether Kerr's position is shared by others, I ventured to the well-heeled, macchiato-drinking community of Brentwood, where I figured people would take matters of privacy especially seriously.

It's been my experience that people with lots of money and lots of lawyers tend to be the touchiest about intrusions into their private lives.

This being L.A., practically the first person I bumped into was an actor.

Marc Blucas, 35, appeared on the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," playing one of Buffy's boyfriends and a secret government agent. He's also been in movies including "The Alamo" and "First Daughter."

Blucas was walking his dog and we got to chatting about what Kerr had said and whether it was impossible to remain anonymous in the digital age.

Blucas' first reaction, like a number of people I spoke with, was that it's too bad privacy has taken a pistol-whipping, but what are you going to do in these post-9/11, terrorist-infested days?

The more we spoke, however, the more animated he became about the need to stop handing away our civil liberties to every government agency that plays the national-security card.

"It's like paparazzi," Blucas said. "Maybe they take a shot of me at the market or cleaning up after my dog, and that's OK. But then I get people with cameras following me home in their car. It's really freaky. You start fearing for your safety.