I know it's not a popular term in the U.S. but the socialist answer would be that companies serve the public and should therefore make information freely availa

I know it's not a popular term in the U.S. but the socialist answer would be that companies serve the public and should therefore make information freely available unless there's a good reason not to. For the same reason companies shouldn't get to keep or distribute information on the very people they're supposed to be serving (unless there's a good reason to). So rather than transparency increasing with power, you could also say that the lack of transparency itself is placing powers in the exact opposite place of where it should be.