We've been playing this game since decades[1] and the pace has been accelerating (and keeps on doing so). There is no way to stop this because the state always plays the long game, and the odds are rigged against us.
[1] Jacques Ellul "The Technological Society" (pdf) https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci...
[2] James C. Scott "The Art of Not being Governed" (pdf) https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf
[3] James C. Scott "Seeing Like a State" https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300078152/seeing-state / pdf: https://libcom.org/files/Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20Jam...
For example, states like to make their subjects “legible” to the state in specific ways, so deliberately becoming illegible is a defense mechanism.
Personally, I have been enjoying that the facial mask has surely been making facial recognition more challenging, though of course this is short-lived.
And rational, smart employees can still be gamed with the simplest of tricks, e.g. "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover will prove." -- Robert Anton Wilson https://www.seriouswonder.com/raw-what-the-thinker-thinks-th...
There's no talent shortage for 5G.
I see no talent shortage for special forces that go in foreign countries to maim and kill all in the name of freedom and democracy.
And along the way, we were always saying “ooh, this will be used against us someday”. Well of course all this will be built and “used against us”. How you gonna stop progress?