The difference is surveillance states have historically leveraged people rather than passive tracking. It’s wildly different knowing your friends, family, even children are being indoctrinated to report you for things that may or may not have happened at which point you just disappear like many people you never heard from again.
It’s actively stressful in a way that cellphones just don’t evoke.
White or not if you are only middle class in middle america that ticket for the weed and steeper paraphernalia charge are going to hurt. Good luck getting the dumb things you've done as a teenager expunged unless you are actually upper class in middle america and therefore have access to legal council that your parents bankroll.
It’s actively stressful in a way that cellphones just don’t evoke.