Surveillance isnt a problem until people use it for personal gain

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution would seem to disagree.

> Surveillance isnt a problem until people use it for personal gain

It absolutely can be a problem when used for organizational or ideological gain - e.g., when used by state, religion, business, or political group to spread propaganda, suppress opposition, unjustly favor an in-group, etc.

The classic case of using mass surveillance to help a burgeoning theocratic or fascist state is a pretty standard example.

People or AI...

Yes but here is the catch. Surveillance comes with the incentives to us it for the personal gain. Or to phrase this differently: knowledge is power and thus the people who are already in power have good motivation to accumulate as much knowledge as possible in order to stay in power.

It is very easy to take the philosophical stance where every concept can be totally detached from the incentives it creates and the social dynamics it is part of. It is easy to take that stance, but it is very hard to use that stance to explain reality, because reality plays by more complex rules.

Please, always consider the status quo and the incentives involved instead of stating the surveillance equivalent of "weapons don't kill, people do".