True. Its not just Google. And, as you say, its not just the traditional BigTech. Large companies and the State have been in complicit in power grabbing since a long time.
When we used to talk about the data-collection for various reasons - but primarily for ad-targetting and later personlization purposes, we always were quite concerned.
The data-collection felt very wrong. But, we kinda collectively sighed and allowed it, thinking ads are a necessary evil.
First of all, as engineers, this is a cop-out.
Even if we grant ads as a necessary evil, this should always have been stop-gap to a better - a less evil - business model.
As engineers, we again failed to stand up against this <i>continued</i> use - for decades now.
But,
nobody ever agreed for the data to be made available to the State.
This is a breach of trust!
If anyone says their hands were tied - I say they were tied with money.