I remember a while back Apple filed a patent that allows concerts to disable iPhones cameras if a certain signal is emitted from the stage. Apple never implemented this, but my pessemistic ass always try to think of worse case scenarios, like being used by government. Do you think this could occur in the future?
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36672001
You can search “Apple Concert Disable Camera” and find more about it.
The political difficulty of implementing this will vary highly depending on the country. Technically, while impossible to enforce 100%, even if it is 90% effective it will be very effective at covering things up. The main accountability benefit of phones is the ubiquity, because everyone has a phone. If a fraction of people have workarounds it won’t be nearly as effective.