A private company is. They are the ones who want to know if you are a smoker. They probably insisted the government ask that question before they would participate in the program. In other words, Obama is doing their snooping for them. It doesn't hurt me if the government knows I smoke. But it might hurt me if my insurance company found out.

And yes, I AM more likely to trust the government with my information to make choices that are supposedly beneficial for all. I know that companies are only interested in their benefit--and that is not a criticism, it is a statement of fact; that's their job.

Governments are indeed overly obsessive about collecting statistical information and populating databases on populations. But private companies are interested in ME, my interests, my credit rating, my buying history, my likes and dislikes, everything about me as a person so they can sell me stuff and spam me. And it ain't because they want to "serve me better". They just want to serve me as much as possible.

Like Robert says, I deal with the government once a year when I pay my taxes. But my mailbox is full of crap every day from companies wanting to sell me stuff I don't want at prices I can't afford with money I haven't even earned yet.