Concerns about what is often called the surveillance state have been shared for decades, but modern technology makes it more and more convenient and easy for governments and corporations to monitor the activities of citizens. Of particular concern is the fact that toys now have the capacity to visually and auditorially monitor the activities of children. From the point of view of a parent concerned with the safety of a child this is potentially a good thing, but there are downsides to this technology. Nevermind the potential for hackers to also use features enabling surveillance to get information about or embarrassing images of a child, there is the bigger question of conditioning people to accept such surveillance as normal and even desirable. Without the capacity for private thoughts, discussions, and actions where all ideas can be shared openly and without fear of retribution or interference by a police state, meaningful democracy becomes an empty charade. So a general distrust of devices capable of monitoring human activity should be encouraged so that people at least question their use and insist that they be employed only in certain highly restricted situations and that the scope of data collected is minimal and subject to clearly delineated constraints.