Why do we always wait until it's too late and the repurcussions almost unbearable to put in any common-sense preventions to abusive technology or practices?
It all comes down to your definition of "we". In short, this is either a collective preference problem (e.g. not enough people care or pay attention) or a collective action problem (if you believe that at least collective intent exists).
More specifically, a common theme in public policy analysis is agenda setting. Unfortunately, in many situations, the agenda is so crowded with priorities that only crises cut through. For more context, see "The Public Policy Primer: Managing the Policy Process" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8727263-the-public-polic...)
You can't meaningfully regulate for specific things before they exist for one. Trying to do so prematurely would result in nonsense that would only hold us all back. Not to mention matters of enforcibility.
Facial recognition's biggest abuses are from the fox watching the hen-house. "Common sense" would lead to such absurdities like banning using it on cops because "everybody knows criminals could use it to track them" while using it on every protester because "they might be terrorists" despite both known truths being complete bullshit.
Because law makers are still trying to wrap their heads around the Internet. That means tech has to self regulate and we just haven't set ourselves up for that. I don't think that lack of diversity helps with that.
