Well, it's a personal value judgement what is "better" of course, but for me being British, I see my government as having some legitimate interest in what I am doing, especially when transacting with them.
On the other hand, a gargantuan for-profit American corporation that enriches it's shareholders and was once run by Eric Schmidt, whose legendary face-palm gaffes buried "Don't be Evil" under a smoking heap of sulphurous brimstone....
"We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or
less know what you’re thinking about"
My government may be a sneaky bunch of bastards, but so far they've had the good manners not to openly show utter contempt for privacy.