Earlier this month Google (GOOG) announced a new operating system called Chrome. It’s meant to transform personal computers and handheld devices into single-purpose windows to the Web. This is part of a larger trend: Chrome moves us further away from running code and storing our information on our own PCs toward doing everything online–also known as in “the cloud”–using whatever device is at hand.

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There are plenty of people who can muster outrage at Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman who is the latest example of win-at-any-cost athletes. But I’d prefer to see him as at the cutting edge of another scourge–the growing encroachment on privacy.

The way Mr. Rodriguez’s positive steroid test result became public followed a path increasingly common in the computer age: third-party data collection. We are typically told that personal information is anonymously tracked for one reason–usually something abstract like making search results more accurate, recommending book titles or speeding traffic through the toll booths on the thruways. But it is then quickly converted into something traceable to an individual, and potentially life-changing.

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New legislation being considered in Congress would prevent U.S. companies from aiding the censorship and surveillance operations of repressive foreign governments. The Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA), sponsored by Chris Smith (R., N.J.), would track foreign Internet monitoring and blocking efforts under a new Office of Global Internet Freedom and would prevent U.S. tech firms from handing over sensitive user information to so-called Internet-Restricting Countries. On balance, GOFA would help the cause of Internet freedom, or at least provide a better understanding of surveillance worldwide. Yet some of the provisions are misguided, and could actually hurt the cause GOFA aims to further.

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