You have it backwards (and BTW NYC doesn't have and army nor secret courts).

Yes, the us gov sadly has secret courts and of course an army et al. But it's also subject to some constraints, such as the very one that gives rise to this blog post: government agencies typically have to announce their plans and have them open for discussion.

Does the process always work? Of course not! But it's a lot more transparent than how corporations can be. People are outraged by secret spying, secret torture etc. And why do governments do that stuff in secret? Because they know it will cause outrage. Some governments (e.g. DDR & Norks to name a few), do it overtly because the very knowledge of the spying is part of its value.

Whereas there are few tools to control the same actions by corporate entities.

I do expect an erosion of these secret programs over the next 20 years. However they may be overshadowed by corporate databases.

Our governments, being made of people, are hardly right all the time. But neither are our corporations (and they are indeed our corporations, regardless of capital structure because they are permitted to act in the public sphere) as they are also machines operated by people. A foolish knee-jerk reaction in favor of one over the other is intellectually stupid.