This is hardly a unique situation for the US. There are lots of countries where the state is surveilling their own citizens en masse, some for much more nefario

This is hardly a unique situation for the US. There are lots of countries where the state is surveilling their own citizens en masse, some for much more nefarious purposes, and it's not all tiny dictatorships either - plenty of large Western countries are doing it. From my perspective (as someone in the UK) it's actually really refreshing that in the US, some companies are pushing this as a competitive advantage. That means people actually care about it and will make decisions based on it, which is far better than the total apathy I'm surrounded by here. Companies having to work to minimise what is released to the government is not unique to the US; the fact that they are however is relatively rare.