What's different about these files and those of tech platforms is that the information itself didn't matter. It was the system of government itself to maintain

What's different about these files and those of tech platforms is that the information itself didn't matter. It was the system of government itself to maintain the impression that there were secret informants everywhere and there was no way of knowing who was or wasn't. The point was to instill terror for its own sake, and to politically paralyze individuals, or "atomize," people into inaction. The randomness and absurdity of the system was by design, as the arbitrary nature of it had the effect of creating uncertainty and paranoia in every individual relationship. This secured the power of the party and the regime. The information itself was meaningless to the government, they just needed enough for a pretext to find someone of whom to make a periodic example. There was no real legalism in the use of the information. It was a pretext for arbitrary targeting to keep the belief in terror going. The system was intended to prevent an individual from working out specifically what being "good," could mean, or behaviour that would insulate them from the detentions and interrogations of the state. People collaborated and informed because all they had was fear, and having any principle at all would make you a danger for reprisals against people you cared about. It operates as simply as a ponzi scheme for terror. Don't take my word for it, it's covered in the final chapter of "The Origins of Totalitarianism," (http://virtuallaboratory.colorado.edu/Origins/class%20readings/Hannah%20Arendt%20-%20Ideology%20and%20Terror.pdf http://virtuallaboratory.colorado.edu/Origins/class%20readin...) Platform companies have enough data to operate a terror, but the reality was, you didn't really need that much data at all. You just needed to be able to link people and a means to terrorize them and their loved ones in as random a way as possible. The worst was achieved in the 20th century with orders of magnitude less data.