Let me propose a different scenario that might help you understand the detriment of the "You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide" mentality.
Hypothetical
Fast forward a couple years. The government has installed automatic road monitoring devices that can track when people are speeding and where they are going, no problem, you don't have anything to worry about, just don't speed. No problem. The government also required all new cars to have road monitoring software, which just so happens to contain a killswitch for law enforcement, that will disable your car if need be, Great!, now if someone steals my car, law enforcement can just disable it, this will protect people!
A year later, you're sitting with your wife in your living room, watching reruns of Fox News, feeling great about your police-state-protected suburban life, you look over and your wife is grasping at her chest, unable to breathe. She's having a heart attack. 911 service in your area is bogged down / inefective (problem exists today in some areas) so you need to rush your wife to a hospital yourself. You get her to the car, jump in, and start racing down the road. You get a mile down the road, and the automatic road monitoring system flags you as a speeder, and uses the the software in your car to correct your speed, causing you to go the speed limit. Your wife is dieing, so you continue to force the pedal down. No luck, you can't get your car over the speed limit. Your wife dies on the way. Or maybe the road-side monitors just shut your car off the first time.. and your wife died. Or maybe it just alerted a nearby officer, who pulled you over for speeding and didn't listen to you when you tried to explain yourself.. and your wife died. You are'nt a criminal, you have nothing to fear, except not bieng able to take matters into your own hands because they've been tied behind your back.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me propose a different scenario that might help you understand the detriment of the "You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide" mentality. Hypothetical Fast forward a couple years. The government has installed automatic road monitoring devices that can track when people are speeding and where they are going, no problem, you don't have anything to worry about, just don't speed. No problem. The government also required all new cars to have road monitoring software, which just so happens to contain a killswitch for law enforcement, that will disable your car if need be, Great!, now if someone steals my car, law enforcement can just disable it, this will protect people! A year later, you're sitting with your wife in your living room, watching reruns of Fox News, feeling great about your police-state-protected suburban life, you look over and your wife is grasping at her chest, unable to breathe. She's having a heart attack. 911 service in your area is bogged down / inefective (problem exists today in some areas) so you need to rush your wife to a hospital yourself. You get her to the car, jump in, and start racing down the road. You get a mile down the road, and the automatic road monitoring system flags you as a speeder, and uses the the software in your car to correct your speed, causing you to go the speed limit. Your wife is dieing, so you continue to force the pedal down. No luck, you can't get your car over the speed limit. Your wife dies on the way. Or maybe the road-side monitors just shut your car off the first time.. and your wife died. Or maybe it just alerted a nearby officer, who pulled you over for speeding and didn't listen to you when you tried to explain yourself.. and your wife died. You are'nt a criminal, you have nothing to fear, except not bieng able to take matters into your own hands because they've been tied behind your back.