> as the alternative is made too costly / dangerous by the governors.

There's nothing government (corporate or political) has made "costly" or "dangerous" about not having them, society did that all by itself: people will actively pay more to have these things because they see the benefit more than the risk, video calls with friends and family, not a hacker being able to duplicate their keys from one photo.

There's 6 cameras on my desk right now, attached to internet-capable devices. Two phones, two laptops. I've got covers over all of them, which is easy, and sometimes mandatory e.g. when visiting the headquarters of certain big-tech firms.

I'd never buy a smart camera. Don't trust them not to spy on me. But I do have a Raspberry pi upstairs, with a NoIR camera module, and an AI-coded bit of webcam software. Might consider it for seeing what animal gets into the garden at night.