This goes well beyond “jumping the shark” — there is no technology that can be developed that…

This goes well beyond “jumping the shark” — there is no technology that can be developed that government’s cannot make illegal.

The tide has been running against surveillance opponents for 16 years with no end in sight. Two years ago, the Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which actually made the government’s ability to get telephone metadata permanent, out to “two hops” from you, your family members, etc, and despite the fact that Obama’s own tech expert panel AND the Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board said the Sec. 215 program was worthless.

Google is the king of corporate surveillance when it comes to its own users, and as Snowden revealed, it’s a willing partner with NSA — which means that Google simply acts as a middle-man when it hands over your data at rest (PRISM).

And Apple? They have the money to establish a super PAC that would terrify every House and Senate member into NEVER supporting laws or regulations that gut the Bill of Rights — and that is the only way the current political calculus (“I don’t want to be seen as ‘soft on ISIS’ so I’ll vote for more surveillance”).

No, the crypto wars are far from over — and right now, the good guys are definitely losing because they remain organized along a nonprofit advocacy model, rather than transitioning to an electorally-focused super PAC model. Until that changes, the long, slow obliteration of the Bill of Rights and the digital tools that enable it will continue.