http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
Both of these articles are about union struggles where the government intervened on behalf of corporations. These incidents have caused me to question how we treat various types of organisations [i.e. C-corps vs. 501(c)(3)] as they relate to society.
I do think it's relevant that a corporation that has that kind of clout with the government is something you should be just as afraid of as branches of the government themselves, but I still feel like the potential for abuse by Facebook and the Chinese government is not even close.
I don't think I was being disingenuous, my point is about how dangerous and powerful the data these companies have is. They probably have more ability to identify and locate an individual than any of the 3 letter agencies. My other point was that the article has a serious xenophobic agenda, something that probably increases readership but is bad for the world.