I don't think you can separate the two since the tech companies are selling the data to the government. We are be surveilled by both at rhe same time.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2026
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Both. Especially when they cooperate.
They are the same thing now.
"Yes" is the obviously correct answer.
Though I kind of invite everyone to watch the dark dystopian sci-fi movies from a few decades ago. It's almost always some nasty private company.
And downside of them is: They have not been elected by the people. There's also no separation of powers, accountability etc. And we have that to some degree in somewhat working democracies. Even the half broken (as of today)'s democracies come with more accountability and checks than any private company. And we got companies who are richer and more influential than several smaller countries. So there's that as well.
But they're both very scary.
Yes
TL;DR: Both; but it depends on your threat model who and what you want to protect against.
The interconnection of both, where state surveillance finds in private data collection the info they aren't legally allowed to obtain, or where state actors sub-contracts the private sector to provide data.
Yes.
They're the same.
Tech has been far worse, at least in my experience.
Until recently, government surveillance was at least predictable and consistent. Obviously I was against it, but seemed to have at least some voice and didn’t expect any personal harm. Of course with the recent sharp turn right, we can see how naive that is, how “the slippery slope” is not a fallacy
Meanwhile tech has formed entire businesses out of extracting and exploiting private information, including collecting it for the government to workaround due process, scaling out surveillance networks that government has no budget for, and generally going around limits desired by voters . They have actively pursued whatever avenue they can get away with, causing direct harm to us all
When the biggest abuses of privacy are committed by tech, but bought by government, which do you blame?
I agree that government at least could be in a well functioning democracy and respect individual rights and such while copro just means your a commodity.
Both is an option.
There's a third. The streets. It's all the same game from the bottom to the top, mainstream or street. It's all connected and utilized for the spirit of the game.
I think the real question is more along the lines of "is western culture prodominantly evil" and how do we deal with the denial and surrealism of the honest answer.
I think the real question is more along the lines of "is western culture prodominantly evil"
Over surveillance?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_China
Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and government to monitor its citizens. China maintains the largest and most sophisticated mass surveillance system in the world.[2][3] Surveillance is primarily conducted through government entities, although corporate surveillance in connection with the CCP and Chinese government is also prevalent. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies.[4][5] As of 2023, the country had over 700 million surveillance cameras. The surveillance has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under Xi Jinping's administration.[6][7][8][9] In the 2020s, China started integrating artificial intelligence into its surveillance systems.
There is no difference between the tech oligarchs and the goverment.