Do you mind if I read your mind?

How beneficial would the technology be if a computer could scan the mind and predict people's intentions? One of the focuses conveys a positive outlook for applications of this type of technology. It is theorized it could be used to stop a crime that was to happen in the future as was the case in Minority Report. I have to admit that would be great. It might potentialy save my life from a person who wish to do me harm. However, this is based on the assumption that the human being will carry out the action no matter what, as if we are programmed for that specific function. We are not computers. One forgets the aspect of free will, "the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces." This personal choice stems from our process of thinking. Humans weigh out the goods and the bads of the choice they are deciding to make. They also have the ability to change their minds, from a change of conscience or in light of new information. What if the person saw it wasn't worth killing his fellow man? Oh well, because with the technology, he would probably be behind bars before he could make that decision. Furthermore, the technology might invade other areas of our lives. Consider academic classes. We learn information, and take tests to prove our knowledge. A technology like this could scan our minds for what we know, and assign a grade without our chance to prove our knowledge. Some knowledge is not straightforward, and requires delineating a path to the correct answer. For a very basic example, we might be given a triangle with two known sides, and we are asked the measurement of the hypotenuse. Well, we could not possible know the correct answer without using mathematical equations. That would require memorizing all the possible combinations of triangles, to which there are an infinite number of possibilities. So we would have to rely on facts of the triangle, see that it is a right triangle, and use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the hypotenuse. One might say that the technology would pick up on the brain waves of the process of recognizing the triangle and using the appropriate equation. I say how is this different than the human performing the task on paper? Or one might ask you to prove the pythagorean theorem. Would it be right to mark you wrong for a technology to select the brain waves characteristic of proof number 1? How about proof number number 10, or any of the 72 proofs I came across on google? And I won't even get started on how it could reveal your personal feelings, your anxieties, secret company information, and other priviledged information. I don't know, maybe I am missing the point, but of course, this technology would have clearly revealed that? Or would it?