Why didn't you have a problem with a single person doing little with a lot of effort?

All I'm saying is it should have been a problem at that point.. not just because it's easy now to do it at a high scale.

I didn't have a problem because the damage that can be caused by doing a little is very limited, and if someone puts too much effort it becomes very visible and they're put under extra scrutiny, preventing them from doing more harm. Also because outlawing standing on a street and taking notes is a very slippery slope.

Because the outcome is meaningfully different when every citizen can be passively tracked at all times versus a few cops sitting around writing down license plates.

The former is massively damaging to our rights, the latter is almost useless and thus barely a problem worth talking about.

The difference in scale matters.