GITS: SAC - "Intercepter" - On Self-Incrimination

"Intercepter" is the fourth episode in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and the first episode that is tied to an overall plot. In this episode, a scandal occurs where law-enforcement officers are being bugged without consent; microcameras which record what a person sees are placed within their cyberized brains.

The officers who were bugged were working on a specific case which had remained unsolved for over six years, in which they are trying to find a mysterious hacker known as the Laughing Man. This hacker was involved in an act of corporate terrorism, and to try and catch him, law-enforcement agencies bugged not only the suspect, but their own officers as well. This leads the Section 9 team to believe that those law-enforcement agencies are guilty of something as well.

In the series, these devices are legal, provided proper paperwork is submitted and a third-party mediates (this wasn't done, therefor the specific use on officers was proven illegal). Much like the recent real world NSA privacy violations, this action was highly scandalized and scrutinized. It serves as a reinforcing evidence of the importance of personal privacy freedoms, and what limits should be placed on government surveillance of its citizens.

Under the legal precedents of nations which use Common Law, a protection of the accused is the freedom not to testify against oneself. However, if someone witnesses you committing a crime, then they are obligated to assist police in apprehending you. There are very few exceptions.

The reason some people might seek to defend the National Security Agency of the United States is because the companies which were under surveillance are considered witnesses to illegal activity. Failure to comply with law-enforcement demands would result in obstruction of justice on part of those companies. While it isn't ethically right, it is legally valid.

That said, a device like the intercepter cameras in the Ghost in the Shell series may never be condoned, because it turns the suspect into their own prosecution witness, forcing them to testify against themselves and violating Common Law. It relies on you seeing yourself doing something illegal and reporting it to police unwillingly.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that people would willingly put the devices in themselves to catch others in criminal acts, but that's a different story altogether.