If I were posting things critical of my own government I would rather have a foreign government hoard that data than my own government.
At first glance, that would be true… but beware, since either will be happy to throw you under the bus whenever it helps their agenda.
If, for example, China was to hoard data about voters for A, B, and C… whenever they wanted to favor B voters, they could “leak” the most compromising data about A and C so the US government would take action… or if they wanted to wreak havoc and favor D, they could leak all data about everyone.
A much simpler case, is that having more data on more people, allows them to better tailor and target misinformation campaigns that benefit them.
So really, any kind of hoarding has a similar chance of getting acted upon.
As a simple user, you are right that you shouldn’t care much about who hoards data about you, your main care should be about anyone hoarding that data at all.
At first glance, that would be true… but beware, since either will be happy to throw you under the bus whenever it helps their agenda.
If, for example, China was to hoard data about voters for A, B, and C… whenever they wanted to favor B voters, they could “leak” the most compromising data about A and C so the US government would take action… or if they wanted to wreak havoc and favor D, they could leak all data about everyone.
A much simpler case, is that having more data on more people, allows them to better tailor and target misinformation campaigns that benefit them.
So really, any kind of hoarding has a similar chance of getting acted upon.
As a simple user, you are right that you shouldn’t care much about who hoards data about you, your main care should be about anyone hoarding that data at all.