> I'd rather live in a country without a million cameras

Are you talking about the US or China? https://deflock.org/

China at least banned the use of facial recognition in public spaces by their supreme court in 2021 (and then further strengthened the ban in 2024 and also got the PIPL).

If you're thinking of the "social credit" system please know that that's just an online meme. China's credit score system is not even nationalized and not nearly as invasive as the US's credit score system, which can sometimes determine whether or not someone is allowed to buy a house.

Besides their own credit score system, the other thing that sometimes gets labelled the "social credit system" was an attempt they had to track the behavior of business leaders and elected politicians. Basically anyone who holds social power but not the common person. This also never really took off and was not ever nationalized/centralized.

> I'd rather live in a country without a million cameras that automatically fine me for crossing the street illegally

Agreed, but there again, the democracies have surveillance capitalism, it's not exactly like we're not being tracked.

You let Trump and all the tech-bro shitheads win with that attitude unfortunately. Democracy is an ongoing battle.