It is clear from the trove of documents leaked by Snowden that the only protection against NSA or GCHQ intrusion is membership of Five Eyes: the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. New members do not seem to be welcome, and the lesson is that outside that tight circle, it does not matter how senior you are, and how close a friend you think you are to Washington or London, your communications could easily be being shared among the handful of white, English-speaking nations with membership privileges.
Julian Borger, "On the Five Eyes and NSA Intelligence Crisis," 2013 (via guardian)