George Skelton: The internet is no longer an infant that needs freedom to innovate — it's grown into a monster and needs to be restricted

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart became alarmed about the internet's threat to personal privacy while chatting with a Google engineer at a cocktail party.

"I asked, 'What's this deal with all the privacy stuff? Is it anything to be worried about?'" Mactaggart recalls. "I expected him to say, 'No, it's not a big deal.'

"Instead he said, 'If people only knew how much we know about them, they'd really freak out.'"

"I was taken aback," the developer says. "That got me interested."

Now the