I think we should tattoo the Fourth Amendment on the chest of every spook, every spy, every NSA analyst - anyone and everyone who would do something like this:

U.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people - along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions - to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they'd checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.

It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.

Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn't receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he'd never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.

The unprecedented creation of such a list and decision to disseminate it widely demonstrate the ease with which the federal government can collect and share Americans' personal information, even when there's no clear reason for doing so.

No warrant, no cause - no business sharing information with anyone, much less collecting it. It is the terrible logic of the national security state that once there is a breach in the personal privacy firewalls of American citizens, there is no end to the justifications used by the government to go further than they are constitutionaly prevented from doing so.

Time to roll up these operations and pass a law preventing them from happening again.