Why aren't VPNs, and more broadly encryption, a solution to this problem? "Waving the wand of a technical solution," as the post pejoratively calls it, isn't such an unreasonable thing to do with an inherently technical problem. This problem only exists because of other technical wands we waved. Why solve this problem with policy? Policy is hard to get passed, hard to keep passed and even when it is passed often times it means nothing. Remember this is the same government that contains multiple organizations surveilling your every move, not because they legally can, because they illegally can. The point is, it's foolish to count on USG to give you a right to privacy, just look at the history on this, it's not going to happen. But it's especially foolish when this is a right that you can enforce for yourself. If you actually care about your privacy use a VPN, or Tor, don't sit around waiting for the government to do it for you.