> I don't think the government considers it much of an inconvenience to use violence to handle all of those things today.
Of course it does. It’s expensive, inefficient, and plays badly on TV.
How much easier would it be if every single person could be identified automatically from a drone and arrested out of public view?
How much more efficient if people suppressed themselves, and never attended a protest, out of fear of it being declared illegal and automatically receiving a summons (or worse, an arrest warrant)?
> The government can already torture, enslave, and kill you. If you can trust your government to handle those well …
I don’t trust them to handle those well. That’s why the legal system incorporates strong checks and balances, and even then is still ripe with corruption and abuse.
Why would I want to give them more powerful tools with far less oversight?
> If government can't handle those things well, the ids don't make for much of a change wrt to the government
That’s absurd; if you don’t trust a government, facilitating their abuse of citizens obviously has a material impact on the scale and scope of their actions.
Your argument, taken to its conclusion, would justify any privacy violation by the government.
Of course it does. It’s expensive, inefficient, and plays badly on TV.
How much easier would it be if every single person could be identified automatically from a drone and arrested out of public view?
How much more efficient if people suppressed themselves, and never attended a protest, out of fear of it being declared illegal and automatically receiving a summons (or worse, an arrest warrant)?
> The government can already torture, enslave, and kill you. If you can trust your government to handle those well …
I don’t trust them to handle those well. That’s why the legal system incorporates strong checks and balances, and even then is still ripe with corruption and abuse.
Why would I want to give them more powerful tools with far less oversight?
> If government can't handle those things well, the ids don't make for much of a change wrt to the government
That’s absurd; if you don’t trust a government, facilitating their abuse of citizens obviously has a material impact on the scale and scope of their actions.
Your argument, taken to its conclusion, would justify any privacy violation by the government.