Many people fear that a corrupt or authoritarian regime might misuse data to cause harm. However, the reality is that such regimes tend to carry out harmful actions regardless of the data they collect. Data can make their efforts more efficient, but the real danger lies in the regime's intent, not necessarily the data itself.
Exactly, historical authoritarian states got by just fine by reading the mail and listening to conversations. You don't need to know which fragrance I bought last week to oppress me, and it wouldn't help anyway
But they broadly didnt actually get along just fine... Almost without exception they have falleb, commonly due to internal resistance. Making that internal resistabce harder via enhanced surveillance is the issue that could make future scenarios even worse.
