The same could be said of strong encryption: if people use it, the government might crack down.

On the other hand, the more people use encryption, the less useful mass surveillance will be to the government. When the government no longer gets much worthwhile information from eavesdropping, it may be easier to get politicians to put a halt to eavesdropping.

So it could be that the best way to protect privacy is to use both technical and political approaches.