There's a difference between "Corporations have too much power to influence government policy" and "The government will hand over its sensitive personal data records to corporations".

I would say the former is a much more widely held belief, although we have no way to know if the latter is actually happening.

I read the comment as that they are surprised that the government is pushing back instead of legitimizing bad behavior.

Likely explanation is the wealthy and powerful have a personal interest here. Consider the security nightmare that phone tacking poses for high wealth individuals.