Warrantless surveillance opens the door to abuse — to enabling those in power to monitor their political opponents in order to remain in power. It also enables them to monitor those who would attempt to reveal illegal behavior by the government. Surveillance is the primary tool that authoritarian regimes use to stay in power. The Nazi chimney sweeps are a prime example.

Government sometimes needs to engage in surveillance; however, a warrant-based process helps to ensure that surveillance has appropriate cause. Indiscriminate facial recognition, license plate recognition, telephone and Internet surveillance, with the data added to central government owned databases, are all grave threats to democracy.