In the show, a machine called OBIT has been invented that allows you to see anyone you choose, anywhere, at any time. It's the ultimate security device, but its use quickly spreads beyond the military into civilian life. Despite its ethical implications (you can imagine the possible scenarios), nobody can stop using it. High-tech voyeurism has become addictive.

We're a long way from OBIT, but sometimes it's important to look at the kinds of bargains we make with technology.

A friend pointed out that any time you're in a public space, it's best to assume that you're on camera. It might be a security camera or one built into a cell phone or perhaps a red-light camera set to catch traffic scofflaws.

Those cameras can be a useful check on bad behavior, but the long-term concerns show up in dark visions such as George Orwell's "1984," in which cameras are mounted in every home, and privacy is essentially nil.

So we need to be managers of technology, always trying to extract the benefits, but keeping a wary eye on misuse.

I was thinking about this the other day because of Bill Gates' talk at the Consumer Electronics Show, which began Jan. 8 in Las Vegas. Microsoft's founder is big on connected devices and their prospects for the home, and in concluding his talk, he painted a picture of a digital kitchen armed with voice control, computerized recipe readouts and RFID chips to analyze ingredients.

"RFID" stands for radio frequency identification and refers to tags that can identify objects or people using radio waves. The computerized kitchen might be able to alert you when you were running low on key ingredients because it would know, via RFID, when certain items were no longer on your shelves.

RFID is working its way into industry with great success, with big manufacturers using it to track shipments and inventory.

But see if this gives you pause.

Owners of the Mini Cooper, the eye-catching little car that is growing so popular, might see themselves on company billboards in four cities. Billboards are programmed to identify an approaching Mini through a signal sent via an RFID chip in the owner's key fob. A thousand Mini owners have signed up to test the "service," which will deliver personalized messages based on questionnaires the owners have filled out.

So you're going down the road and pass a billboard that wishes you a happy birthday or refers to your car by the name you have given it. The smart billboards are an extension of RFID uses for the road, including automated payment at highway tollbooths. The billboards suggest yet another marketing venue for companies willing to push personal information onto signs, whether on the road or off.

I would also offer that they are a huge distraction for drivers, as is so much of the gadgetry that fills the insides of our vehicles.

I'm no alarmist, and I certainly don't see totalitarianism in the "1984" mode being upon us soon, but I do worry about privacy.

So does security expert Bruce Schneier, who recently wrote about the dangers of a new Nike shoe that incorporates a sensor in the sole. An accompanying receiver plugs into an iPod Nano, receiving a wireless signal from the sensor to track time, distance and calories burned. It seems benign, except that researchers at the University of Washington have shown that the signal, which can be read 60 feet away, can be used to track people through its unique identifier.

An overblown concern? It surely is at present, but to the extent that we accept technologies that can be so readily hijacked, we open ourselves to a new kind of vulnerability.

I'm seeing the same kind of concerns about the use of RFID in the next generation of passports. Designed to prevent passport fraud, the tags contain electronic information and a digital photograph that can be read and verified by a scanner. But when opened even slightly, the passport chip could be susceptible to detection by someone nearby with the right equipment.

A German researcher has demonstrated how to copy RFID data from a passport and use it to create a forged document.

With many countries exploring embedded RFID, such passport tags should give us pause, for if one thing has become clear in the digital era, it's that determined people can compromise even the most robust security.

Moreover, we are moving into the era of nanotechnology, when digital identifiers can become all but invisible. Here, too, a balance must be struck between the attractions of a technology and its possible dangers.

It's one we'd better get right.

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