Ostensibly it's the job of the state to balance the civil/privacy rights of its citizens with surveillance. It's the job of these companies to balance the monet

Ostensibly it's the job of the state to balance the civil/privacy rights of its citizens with surveillance. It's the job of these companies to balance the monetary value of the data they collect with the backlash and loss of business they will get by collecting it, which is a very clear and explicit conflict of interest -- they benefit greatly by minimizing that backlash by, say, sponsoring conferences about protecting privacy while simultaneously eviscerating it.