In general I think some privacy concerns are valid and others are not. Specifically I believe government surveillance is problematic and I wish there were more visibility and restrictions on it.
I do believe many companies are collecting data for reasons other than advertising. For example CRM tools (eg Salesforce) have heaps of personal information their customers store with them for a bunch of different reasons. It's really complex for them to comply with these laws - even though they aren't doing any advertising.
Company surveillance is government surveillance. The companies may be collecting information for profit but once the data exists, it can be collected by the Government. In the US, the government can take data and make it so you legally can't even say it happened. But many times they can just buy the data. Companies like Salesforce may not be advertising to individuals, but the companies that use the crm software may be. The existence of the data itself makes it vulnerable to breach. I'd argue that privacy can't be compromised because any data can be used for any purpose (perhaps not always legally, but it doesn't matter since it is irreversible)
