This all seems to be a bit of a red herring:<p>1) Based on what I've read from experts and what I know, if a national security agency targets your data, they will get it. Even government systems containing state secrets, protected by other state security agencies, have proven to be vulnerable. Banks are penetrated; even RSA's crown jewels were stolen, IIRC.<p>2) Even if 'content' data is encrypted, metadata almost certainly is not. Security agencies can identify which data belongs to their target and collect it, even if encrypted. Also, IIRC, recent leaks indicated that the NSA automatically collects much encrypted traffic, including Tor and maybe VPN traffic.<p>3) Metadata, as most people here probably don't need to be reminded, is as valuable as content. Again, regardless of what encryption you use your metadata probably is vulnerable and security agencies can easily collect it and utilize it.<p>4) Therefore, it seems that encryption only prevents low-cost search of bulk-collected content. It doesn't provide any security for metadata (usually), encrypted content still can be collected, and unencrypted content probably is vulnerable if you are a high-value target.