Re: "people already hand over masses of info to private firms"...
Translation
"You are already several major US corporations b**ch. It's no bother to make you the British Governments one as well."
Now that Rudd's no longer Home Sec she's looking less like a sock puppet and more like one of the True Believers in data fetishism.
In politics there are Democrats (who believe in the idea of democracy) and Authoritarians (for whom it is an inconvenience to stopping them getting there own way).
I think it's clear which side Rudd is on.