[commoner]

The key words in here are "scope and depth". Before Snowden, the idea that the American government would collect the communications of hundreds of millions of people who are not under investigation en masse was considered a conspiracy theory by the average American Internet user. I'm not aware of any studies done on this topic, but it's a common sense observation.

Yes, I was shocked by the PRISM disclosures in 2013. Feel free to contact the authors of these articles if you want to argue with them, since they agree.

Edit: You apparently disliked my replies enough to downvote all of my recent comments on other threads.

[_Codemonkeyism]

I've upvoted your replies, because I stand corrected as I've said.

My comments though have tanked Karma.