But creating something like Narus must require all sorts of interesting research and engineering. I wrote a packet analyzer for a single protocol and was just barely able to parse at 1Gbps speed, off a loopback device. Actually getting it deployed at much lower speeds was rather difficult.
Doing the same at 10Gbps, multiprotocol, actually doing neat stuff to the data? Unless their boxes have incredibly expensive hardware inside, they must have done some pretty neat hardware and software designs.
The way to fight this type of surveillance isn't convincing people to avoid working on such projects. That's hopelessly naive or incredibly optimistic. Change the rules of the game: Either make it illegal and enforce or spread proper privacy software like cryptography.