Before this abomination was flushed out of the goobermint comode all over our privacy I warned, and warned and warned and warned everyone who would listen that the above, and worse, would be the INTENDED result.

General rule 1: whatever government says is the goal of a "law" is actually the target. "protecting your privacy" means invading it without recourse. "stopping terrorism" means terrorizing the people with fake bogeymen. (see HL Mencken on that score)

You're not paranoid, Michael, not in the least. Keep it up and keep going, there's bound to be a critical mass someday that'll stand up and put an end to this kind of deceitful meddling.

BTW when this abomination was the topic of the day in DC I had fairly regular access to a lot of congress critters. Almost all of them pretended to understand the dangers, but it became clear after the fact that congress does not work for the people that elect them... not even close.

Government itself and to a lesser degree the insurance companies wanted this "law." Of course the goal was to get their hands on every bit of info about every last living being possible. (of course nowadays they announce they read every email, monitor every call etc and just about nobody gives a crap)

I can't wait until 'we the people' simply refuse to be mindless drones for this magical mind control mechanism we call "the state."