It feels like everyone here is treating it as an all or nothing thing. People are acting like if we allow the government to do this, then the next step surely

It feels like everyone here is treating it as an all or nothing thing. People are acting like if we allow the government to do this, then the next step surely can only be total state surveillance. Can't we come up with some reasonable balance where we can give up some privacy during extreme situations, but have strong safeguards in place to keep it emergency only?