NSA targets the privacy-conscious

While attacking the NSA on legal grounds is admirable, they operate above the law. If their public budget was ever threatened, they would just turn to the black budget. Any laws attempting to restrain the NSA's power would be circumvented.

Tell everyone to use Tor Browser. Heck, I think it's worth starting an underground bounty for ISP techs to install Tor Browser on customer computers. Pay per install, paid in BTC.

> or has made a huge misjudgement by signalling that they have something to hide

That is obviously a psychological effect that the NSA & Co. welcome very much, maybe even try to use against the rest of us. The question is: Do we want to let such a cheap trick get us?

If everyone was more privacy conscious in the Internet, the NSA and other agencies that do mass surveillance would not be able to target, well, everyone. That'd be the end of mass surveillance. Therefore, it's probably better to be a little privacy conscious and use services outside the USA whenever available, for two reasons: - if the economical impact on the US economy is bad, the gov would have to rethink things - it makes it harder and more expensive for the NSA to spy on you

Ultimately, trying to hide from the NSA is pointless. If they actually want your information, they'll get it. But making it impossible for them to do mass surveillance is a whole other thing. And an important one !