It's the leaking they fear most. The implementation of surveillance technologies is unavoidable. Ban them all you like, they will be used regardless. Privacy is dead, and nobody can save it.
What we DO have a shot at controlling is what is done with the data. Probably the best hope for safeguarding things like freedom and democracy lies in making surveillance data transparent and public.
Your philosophy is admirable. Unfortunately it's also the one that led us here. Shall we wait until the surveillance state has us intractably under its boot before we stop arguing over whether its power should exist and start focusing on who we would like wielding it?
What we DO have a shot at controlling is what is done with the data. Probably the best hope for safeguarding things like freedom and democracy lies in making surveillance data transparent and public.