Sorcerer in training
The Dead Past: "Were they protecting people's privacy or maintaining their monopoly on unbeatable undetectable Sinister Surveillance? Asimov should have written a follow-up detailing how ubiquitous time telescopes revealed all government corruption and solved all unsolved crimes."
One huge problem with the surveillance is explained by the government agent. They did have one huge ol' chronoscope developed with older technology. It took the same amount of time to observe an action as it did to perform it; no fast-forward button on past occurrences. If you saw someone do something a tenth of a second ago, that meant unless you already had personnel ready to be moved in, they would likely be gone by the time you got to their actual location.
The way the information was released meant that everyone could get the materials and understand to build the darn things. Great for crimes and seeing who's plotting; not so good when your annoying neighbor can decide to spy on you just because he's bored today. The peeping tom potential alone is frightening.
Edited by Candi Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
That's ultimately Susan's fault, though, for treating the world of the supernatural like it's some kind of game. She'd been warned repeatedly, not to mention nearly died more than once to supernatural threats, yet she still waltzes into the lion's den. For a story. Literally costumed as a monster victim.
Similarly, the events of Fool Moon weren't Harry's fault, either; that's on his apprentice for knowing about a coming crisis, knowing that she needed his help to fix it, and yet still pretending it's only a hypothetical question he'd feel no obligation to answer.