I don't think the solution is going to be technological in nature. It can only be cultural.
We absolutely need a Peace movement that can overpower the current stance of the war movement. We absolutely need to make peace. Probably the only thing that will get us out of this situation is the hardest thing - the most impossible thing - for any of us to do: defeat our enemies by becoming friends with them.
We have to work harder to defeat intolerance, hatred, bigotry. These things fester, and are contagious - and they are the lynchpin of the argument being used by the powers to enact their heinous rules and laws, which enslave us all.
We need a platform of peace that actually really makes peace happen. Some way of getting the rabid ideological Christian crusaders at the same table as the extremist Muslim terrorists. Some way to bring these massive differences - which are utterly arbitrary and without real substance - to the point where the human beings, on the other side of the books and vitriol, see each other and treat each other as any two humans are capable of doing - with peace, with love, and with an honest and sincere desire to see the party across the table survive, flourish, and prosper.
We need to encourage people to be intolerant of intolerance. This is the biggest issue. The NSA wouldn't have any fish in the pond, if we were to gain a level of human understanding, compassion, and cooperation, between the warring factions.
However, this is a difficult task. Maybe we, the human species, won't ever be up for the task. Unless challenged by something else, from elsewhere ..
We need peace. We cannot fight evil for peace, just as we cannot fight a war against terror. Peaceful demonstration movements are destroyed by making them fight. Its really easy to do it. Vietnam war for example, or the fight for the right to protest, or the fight against X Y or Z, or Occupy being sucked into fighting for the right to demonstrate in a public place. I am even talking about being proactive and demonstrating against evil and wrongdoing. Even famous campaigners and activists championing for what is good and against political injustices can not lead us to more peace. The only ideology really that I have come across is nonviolence.
I also like the alien threat as incentive for global unity idea - it makes sense in terms of human group psychology (The Other). And I suspect that group psychology may actually make my first paragraph utterly false, as any movement, any group, any collection of humans may not be able to be peaceful. (individuals however could be...)
EFF against the government is like a kid on a bicycle against a fighter jet.
Only the people can end this and unfortunately they are too busy shopping at the mall.
Even worse polls show the new generation of teenagers shrug off all privacy concerns, they have been trained not to care anymore.