Big Brother is, indeed, watching you, whether it’s Facebook tracing which sites you visit, the federal government inspecting your shoelaces at airports or the Capital Region Chiefs of Police Association, compiling a data base of more than 3.1 million scans, including 2.1 million license plates that were read in 2011 by machines mounted on the backs of police cars.

While Facebook — and Google and other Internet giants — aim to sell you something, the government’s efforts are intended to keep you safe. And, that, of course, is what we expect our leaders to do in these dangerous times.

But, the American Civil Liberties Union is asking, at what cost to our privacy?

The license plate scans, compiled by 10 Connecticut towns, including Plainville, Newington and Wethersfield, are intended, police say, to find vehicles that have expired or stolen registration tags or are linked to criminal activity.

You may recall that, beginning Aug. 1, 2010, the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, as a money saver, abolished registration stickers. At the time, police officers opposed the move because it made it harder for them to know who was driving with an expired license plate.

We understand that registration serves a purpose — enabling police to match up cars with their rightful owners as well as providing a revenue source for the state. But we’re not sure that tracking registrations is the best use of an officer’s time, in an age where every other vehicle hosts a distracted driver.

Focus those surveillance cameras on texters and talkers and get across the idea that such behavior is both unsafe and intolerable. And, when the police stop the drivers, they can check registrations as a matter of routine.

As for the second purpose, monitoring criminal activity, the scans seem to cast a wide net. The 3.1 million scans led to only 28 criminal arrests last year; to accomplish that, we all were subjected to surveillance — and the police chiefs association is retaining records of our activities.

The American Civil Liberties Union is proposing legislation that would allow police to keep the data for two weeks only and would restrict the use of it to law enforcement officials. Currently, anyone — including stalkers and violently jealous ex-partners — can make a Freedom of Information request and obtain the information.

We think this would be a sensible compromise, balancing law enforcement’s mission to keep us all safe with our own concerns about freedom of movement and good, oldfashioned privacy.

— The New Britain (Conn.) Herald