The mental images that South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges evoked were nothing new or shocking — Big Brother and Internet privacy are usually connected.

At the National Governors' Association annual meeting, Hodges painted a futuristic picture in which the government could access your bank account, eavesdrop on your telephone calls or pry into the vault of your deepest secrets.

Yesterday at the Committee on Economic Development and Commerce session, a task force discussed the possibility of the Internet making this Truman Show-like fantasy a reality and a citizen's right to privacy.

"I firmly believe that Internet privacy has the greatest potential to stunt the growth of the Internet," Connecticut Gov. John Rowland said. "The reality is that there is less privacy on the Internet. Some argue there's no privacy at all. Every place you go leaves a footprint, similar to a footprint in the mud."

And the governors have decided to clean up the muddy trail. In an age where almost every state has its own Web site, the panel wants to encourage Internet surfing for legal purposes. Panel members agreed the Internet is a necessary tool, but they want to ensure that citizens are protected.

"The goal is to build electronic fortresses around sensitive data," Rowland said.

This sort of data includes credit card numbers, which are in frequent circulation due to the latest online trend — Internet commerce. While browsing online stores, data is collected about customers' purchasing habits. Before urging governors to take more action, Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer highlighted four public policy challenges in connection with the Internet. He said citizens must receive notice if they are being monitored, choices in how their information is used, secure Web sites and access to information that is harbored about them.

Kate Sullivan and Jason Catlett were on hand to generate ideas on how to best achieve the goals. Sullivan is General Counsel and Chief of Staff for Internet Operations for Citigroup and Catlett is the president and founder of Junkbusters Corp., an Internet privacy firm.

Sullivan outlined Citigroup's privacy policies and said the company has a broad network of customer service and privacy assurances.

"We mailed privacy notices to over 80 million customers," Sullivan said. "We have the choice of opting out of marketing purchases."

Catlett took a much firmer stance on the availability of customer information.

"People should have the right to control information given about themselves to others," Catlett said. "Any bank should have to ask about whether or not you can sell my phone number to telemarketers."