The revelations about government snooping will lead to very secure VPNs popping up that are based in free countries.
The very data the NSA wanted to look at the most will all migrate to these new services.
Since the Snowden affair, the few VPN services that now exist have been overwhelmed with new subscribers. Those located in the US will be shut down soon IMO. They will be resurrected outside the country.
Encryption WILL keep the NSA from getting hold of unencrypted data passed through VPNs or encrypted email providers. The fact that the NSA leaned so heavily on Snowden’s encrypted email provider proves they can’t decode it. They would have left the email provider alone if they could decode it since they can easily get the data before it reaches the email provider...just as they get the data going to Yahoo, Gmail, Google..etc
Tapping the pipes to gather all data does no good if it is strongly encrypted.
The crap some spew about NSA being able to decode any encryption is pure baloney.
The don't have to work very hard if they are the ones who wrote the encryption product you're using.