First example: I received a letter from the mail order pharmacy covered by my insurance that they noticed that I have not been ordering my blood pressure medicine. The letter urged me to contact my doctor and not stop taking the meds without medical advice.

Second example: My credit card that I share with my husband was blocked by the credit card company. Since the balance was paid off, I was left scratching my head, wondering what was going on.

In both cases, Big Brother was trying to assist me or prevent a problem. The blood pressure medication letter was to prevent my stopping the meds, which might have endangered my health. If I were one of those forgetful people, it would have come as a welcome reminder.

In my case, my blood pressure has been normal now for 6 months without any medication (on doctor's advice) and no action necessary.

As for the credit card, it turned out that my husband had called them, confused and disoriented. He thought he was calling a software company and evidently the conversation he had with the credit card rep was so disjointed that they thought they were supposed to put a hold on the card (he wanted to cancel the software order).

I re-activated the card (no charge) and had them put a notation on the account to contact me in the future if there is a concern. They said they were glad to get that information, as they didn't know what to do in the light of their "conversation" with him. Safest to put a hold on the card until they contacted the primary card holder (me).

Having had several of those "conversations" myself with my husband, I can certainly understand why they took the action to prevent possible fraud/misuse of the card.

All of this is by way of saying that everything Big Brother does isn't all bad.