"The American Civil Liberties Union is opposing an Obama administration proposal to reverse a nine-year ban on the use of tracking cookies on federal Websites. In an Aug. 10 filing with the Office of Management and Budget, the ACLU said the policy would allow the mass collection of personal information about every user of a federal government Website." - eWeek

In related news Fox News this week has accused the Obama administration of sending Americans unsolicited spam emails using private e-mail addresses accumulated on the "Fishy List" of email accounts supplied to the government by those who have turned in fellow Americans email addresses.

Earlier this month the President asked Americans for urgent assistance on his website, "Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

When asked directly about spamming American citizens on private email accounts not volunteered by the owners of those accounts, the President's spokesman Gibbs evaded the direct questioning by admitting he hasn't reviewed the lists of email addresses. Basically a complete avoidance of the question "Did the owners of the email accounts provide the White House permission to spam their personal e-mail accounts?"

Perhaps even more sinister is the case being pursued by the American Civil Liberties Union accusing the White House of planting tracking cookies on visitors to Federal websites in a complete reversal of long standing privacy rules.

When the ACLU and FOX News are in agreement on a critical issue either Hell has frozen over or the American people have a real problem on their hands with our newest Administration's treatment of our privacy.

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*** Breaking 8/16/09: White House acknowleges unsolicited e-mails on health care

"The White House for the first time Sunday somewhat acknowledged that people across the country received unsolicited e-mails last week on health care from the administration, suggesting the problem on third-party groups it claimed placed the recipients' names on the distribution list.

In a written statement released exclusively to FOX News, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the White House hopes those who received the e-mails without signing up for them were not "inconvenienced" by the messages. "