>You talk about governments as if they were an alien sentient life form ("governments ... feel entitled"). They're not. They are groups of people who serve constituencies.

Lately, I've been thinking about what's happening in HK, and how the protesters were pulling down facial recognition towers. Without that, the social credit system is crippled (a bit). If enough people made it their business to take down a tower, here and there, with enough frequency, the govt would probably find a way around it but, still, that big, powerful government weakens when the right/wrong citizens get together.

And even when the govt says no masks are allowed, there are ways around that, too [1]

1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtools/comments/ddu3eh/ho...