When Kristi Noem was — what? informed? reminded? — that her meeting with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un, which she reported in a prepublication manuscript of her memoir, never happened, this did not ruffle her sang-froid. She placidly said that the “anecdote” about the meeting would be “adjusted” before the book was published.

Today, Noem, a former member of Congress and former governor of South Dakota, is secretary of homeland security, under whose supervision Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates. There are, however, many reasons, beyond Noem’s nature, that multiplying millions of Americans do not and should not trust ICE.

Much has been said about the social ripples from what began with the introduction of the smartphone. Some consequences, such as instant access to torrents of information, are excellent. Others, such as addictive access to oceans of rubbish, are awful. But an insufficiently appreciated benefit of this device is that most Americans most of the time are carrying video cameras.

Governments around the world are using myriad technologies, some of them sinister, to surveil their populations. U.S. governments — national, state local — are not impervious to the temptation to overdo........

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