Most people don't know what the NSA does, despite the dust-up over warrantless wiretapping from 2005. It's a willful ignorance. Outside of Sneakers and Good Will Hunting, there is a whilsting in the dark about what, exactly, the NSA does. You excuse that from the general public. This is a newsletter about tech law. "Options like that" AREN'T "becoming unsustainable," THEY WERE NEVER EFFECTIVE. That's the truly stupid thing - we're not talking about a bunch of hackers on Tor using 256-bit encryption, we're talking about gmailers. "Consciousness raising?" Seems to me the argument put forth is "hey guise they're reading our email." The brave thing to do is soldier on and keep doing what you're doing despite the fact that suddenly you feel like your underwear is being pawed through. 'cuz that's just it - IT WAS NEVER REALLY YOUR UNDERWEAR DRAWER TO BEGIN WITH and if the revelation that your private thoughts on public wire weren't all that private is enough to send you into a tailspin, what use are you anyway? I smell Yellow Ribbon Syndrome - the idea that a meaningless gesture in the face of a large problem is actually accomplishing something, despite the fact that the gesture is only visible to you.If I tried to start a conversation under the assumption that the NSA has full access to all my emails prior to Snowden, most people would have called me crazy.