MIT cares about our privacy?

I won't dispute the utility of all the technical measures described, but, I don't assume that scholarly articles about privacy indicate real interest, on the part of the academy, in defending it, or, liberty. Where were they, 30 years ago, and more, around the time Al Gore "took the initiative in creating the internet" when the direction, and the cause (the ideological assumptions of people who voted for Al Gore and the like) was obvious to me, and I said so, but no one would hear it? The scholarly articles out of the academy of that day were shouting anyone like me down, with the praises of a "connected world" to come.
Except RMS, or course, who achieved a modicum of fame criticizing the monster he was, apparently, helping smooth the path for.
I know, I'm only a technician. Who listens to technicians? I will suggest that the reader may profit by considering the possibility that the cause of my lack of welcome in the places where scholarship is manufactured, and cause of that scholarship commending, and "creating", the "future" it has, are related, and, that there could be more like me, also unwelcome. Perhaps many more. Perhaps enough for a technical infrastructure more compatible with liberty under law, which might have been, but wasn't.
Those who know about us have power over us. Obfuscation may be our best digital weapon.