There is no equivalence between advertising companies tracking what you browse and a government's ability to throw you in prison.
There was much less difference between a government and a corporation if you happened to deal with the East India Company, or US worker towns of old.
It is simply a deflection from the central point that frequently the state will involve itself in things that it really shouldn't be involving itself in. This is frequenly because it must justify its ever increasing size. Saying that the state should have well defined responsibilities shouldn't be controversial. What those should be is a different conversation.