You can have an absolute right to privacy technology, and a highly functional society, in my opinion. The government could still search any records you have wit

You can have an absolute right to privacy technology, and a highly functional society, in my opinion. The government could still search any records you have with a warrant, but if you left no records, and you encrypted your communications, they would remain private. I think this strikes the right balance because the advantage is always with the government given its resources. The government can still search physical property, compel your friends, associates and accomplices to testify against you, use various tools to physically monitor your communication output pre-encryption, etc. Erring on the side of giving people as much privacy as technologically possible will very likely not even be enough to restrain governments from over-reaching, so let's at least do that.