I don't believe Google is any better.

The confrontational way Google treats countries that actually try to protect their citizens rights and privacy against Google's invasive practices has me believing more and more that Google is just opportunistically waging a "governments bad, Google good" PR war, rather than actually displaying any ethics.

BTW, Google is an advertising company for which the users are the product, not the client. They are in no way "beholden to its users". That would apply to Microsoft, but not to Google.

In the long run, I prefer Microsoft's often clumsy and transparent nastiness over Google that actually tries to make people believe it's a force for good.