There are SLAM cameras that only select "interesting" points, which are privacy preserving. They are also very low power.
They're just fancy cameras with synced flashes. Not Star Trek material-informational converting transporters. Sometimes they rotate, sometimes not. Often monochrome, but that's where Bayer color filters come in. There's nothing fundamentally privacy preserving or anything about LIDARs.
Right, but how likely is it that there will be LIDAR and no cameras (especially given the low cost of the latter)?