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Matthew Tokson

Things Matthew Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Matthew Tokson has been a guest on The Lawfare Podcast (2 times) , The Lawfare Podcast: Patreon Edition (2 times) and Scaling Laws .

Recently: “Scaling Laws Live at Nebraska Law: Matt Tokson on AI Surveillance” on Scaling Laws (October 2026); “Lawfare Archive: Matthew Tokson on Government Purchases of Private Data” on The Lawfare Podcast: Patreon Edition (May 2025); “Lawfare Archive: Matthew Tokson on Government Purchases of Private Data” on The Lawfare Podcast (May 2025); “Matthew Tokson on Government Purchases of Private Data” on The Lawfare Podcast (December 2023); “Matthew Tokson on Government Purchases of Private Data” on The Lawfare Podcast: Patreon Edition (December 2023).

What They Said

“Speed cameras, there's no controversy. They clearly save lives. People hate these things, just absolutely loathe them. … And I think the reason is just that they apply to everyone and everywhere.” — Matthew Tokson, Scaling Laws

Speaking at a live taping at Nebraska Law, Tokson is discussing what happens as technology makes near-perfect enforcement possible. Small things people used to get away with now earn a $100 ticket, and he says rules that hit everyone draw far more backlash than selective or chancy enforcement.

Scaling Laws · 2026-10-13 Permalink → Listen →
Scaling Laws Around 13:17 into the episode
Matthew Tokson

People don't like it.

Kevin Frazier

What?

Matthew Tokson

Yeah. These, you know, red light cameras, there's some controversy over, you know, sometimes they cause more accidents or whatever. They, on net, cause fewer accidents and save lives. Speed cameras, there's no controversy. They clearly save lives. People hate these things, just absolutely loathe them. And I think that, I mean, I guess it's a little more mixed to that, but a lot of people do hate them. And I think the reason is just that they apply to everyone and everywhere. And these little things that you used to be able to get away with, you know, barely running a red light. I grew up in Massachusetts and we were taught to run yellow lights pretty aggressively.

Kevin Frazier

Of course, in mass holes. Yeah, it's just sort of part of the culture

Matthew Tokson

is aggressively going through yellow lights. So things that you used to get away with and no one's around, you know, no one's there to see you, now you're getting a $100 ticket, that seems to really infuriate people. I think the reasons why are complex, but the simplest one is just this applies to…

Kevin Frazier

And so my hunch is that a lot of folks, when they're thinking about lawmakers sitting in a room devising some new criminal scheme, writing some new law, are thinking about, great, we are excited about capturing all of this criminal activity. But in actuality, you point out this idea of a socially…

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