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Whether it's punk kids loitering on the streets of London, or loyal secretaries that take extra-long lunch breaks, surveillance technologies meant to hunt terrorists or criminals could ferret out these minor transgressions as well. If we mandate that the internet be tappable, we will wiretap the internet, at a rate and for purposes beyond those required for counterterrorism. If we build video surveillance networks, we will track people on the streets, and hook that information up to facial-recognition databases and RFID-tag readers.

I don't mean to imply that we have no free will in this matter. We can choose to use highly invasive technologies only for the more serious security and law enforcement purposes. But we must build those restrictions into the machines themselves. Law alone will not be enough to control the natural human desire to use technology for all it is capable of doing, regardless of our values or goals. The inevitable alternative is mission creep.