If I don't trust a private organisation, I can use another one, set up my own, or supply them with pseudo-true information and rotate between providers periodic

If I don't trust a private organisation, I can use another one, set up my own, or supply them with pseudo-true information and rotate between providers periodically. I can select private VPN providers on the basis of say, independent audits and the history of communicating well-received patches into open source code. I can pick and choose what I want and, because most of the time the item in question is electronic in nature, change it without difficulty. I know that the company in question will be making a profit out of me --- the question is "how much" and "can I afford them to". It's much harder to do any of those things with the government. I'm an academic, and I've just been appointed as an associate professor in Denmark. I've noticed that almost all Danes trust their government to do the right thing, and look out for them. As a Brit, this is complete anathema to the way I think --- I wouldn't trust the local council to organise a car park, let alone anything actually complicated. I have a deep-seated and innate distrust of the intelligence services, a skepticism of the police (I was beaten up repeatedly by someone who is now a policeman for being a nerd while at school!), and dislike having a government gateway ID in the UK for tax reasons. There is no way in hell I am downloading a government-produced app in the UK onto my actual phone without a sandbox or some sort of randomising, GPS-blocked VM. Literally none. If I can't change what they do, and I use another method of communication -- like letters, in the post -- and join the hoards of people who don't. Like many other HN posters, I've used a VPN since before the Snooper's Charter came into force, and it positively has improved my life. Were I in America, I wouldn't download this app with these permissions.