Again, run-of-the-mill privacy buffs probably don't have much to fear. This because they don't have much to hide and because failure is an option.
I vehemently disagree with that position. A position that would have almost every founder and every soldier who fought and died for freedom spinning in their graves - no to forget how disgusted it would and should make any living relatives who lost loved ones in freedoms name.
And Yes, We ALL have much too fear from this: however, with that being said, at this exact point in time - if you are not doing anything illegal AND you have not expressed any discontent then you're probably okay. But it's all being held and so you better not ever grow a dissenting opinion or a conscience or principles - or to otherwise accidentally or inadvertently get on their radar. And I don't know about you but giving that much power to them AND also giving up my right to dissent, well that is about as UnAmerican as you can get and it disgusts me to the core (as it should every thinking and aware human being).
This can double as a response to ~spendus also.
I said 'fear' rather than 'reject' or 'fight'. These surveillance programs are extremely dangerous. Snowden put it best when he said 'turn-key system for tyranny.' If the system is not dismantled or successfully attacked it is just a matter of time before the key is turned.
One of the points I was getting at in the trimmed text was that the system is not going to be effective and in fact will probably be counterproductive for catching 'bad guys' who are smart enough to be an actual 'threat.' The XKeyscore docs said as much...they capture almost everything the
normal user does online. This system targets 'normal' users and that point is very important. (BTW, I'll bet that 'normal' includes using VPNs and DuckDuckGo, and again, that doing so simply produces an extra flag tagging the user for more exhaustive analysis.) The most productive battles at this phase are going to be geared towards shaping public perception and pointing out the disturbing nature of these systems will help.
You can use privacy tools on an individual level, but they will only really be effective if a large number of people are using them (and, of course, that they are not themselves mis-designed for mitigating the actual threats or worse still, honeypots.) If only a small fraction of people are using such tools it would take only a false flag event to produce justification for shutting them down since few people will understand anything but the mainstream media line that they are 'tools for terrorists' and even fewer will actually be personally effected.