> Surveillance is desired by the politically and economically powerful

It's also desired by consumers. Parents love tracking their children, spouses track each other. Everyone wants to get a camera to catch porch pirates. Let's not pretend this is something being forced on us by some external evil. The evil is coming from inside the house.

this is entirely misses the point about exactly what makes it dangerous

there's nothing bad with having a camera to spot porch pirates, as long as the data stays private

it becomes problematic when everyone's hooked up to one central place (plus the "AI")

same as the common talking points about CCTV, which always miss the distinction that there's minimal risk if it's only going to some video recorder in the back of the store

it only becomes dangerous when every shop and house are fed back to one central location

and the general public do not understand the difference

> there's nothing bad with having a camera to spot porch pirates, as long as the data stays private

It's still surveillance, and it's subject to subpoena so it can become government data as needed. The centralization makes things worse, sure, but the desire to monitor others often comes from individual actors.

I can walk down my street and I will be recorded every step of the way by someone. The government didn't mandate this, each homeowner decided they "needed" a camera.