I love Ubuntu and haven't touched Windows in 2+ years, but I don't delude myself into believing that Ubuntu being Debian-based affords me protection against mass surveillance.
The only method of securing your data is to make sure it never leaves your computer without your consent and using Linux is one of many possible things you can do to ensure that. Sure, if you're running Skype, Chrome, Steam, etc. on your Linux laptop then the benefit is pretty marginal but still technically better than if it was on Windows.