There isn't evidence that the NSA has access to Google servers, apart from the unencrypted fiber issue (which Google has since fixed, they say). However most us

There isn't evidence that the NSA has access to Google servers, apart from the unencrypted fiber issue (which Google has since fixed, they say). However most users probably have shitty routers that can be remotely pwnd by anyone so yeah... It's also more efficient to just tap the connections of the users' ISPs, rather than tap each home. And since they're tapping backbones, a VPN will only help some. It'll limit the ability for them to easily search you via IP - they'll need to try to distinguish your traffic from the other users on the proxy/VPN. I didn't see anything about correlating timing information, and it'd seem like that'd be a much more difficult thing to analyze versus indexing HTTP requests. But if you read the slides, the instructions to operates are VERY clear to never use this data (passwords and such), but only pass it on to TAO. I'd guess they'd want to be really certain before doing something active/noticeable which might involve spending some sort of identity.