[codeulike]

This shows how it creeps. A change of policy here, a re-interpretation of the rules there, then over the years more and more is hoovered.

Be careful when they say things like "the program only looks at calls in which one end of the communication is overseas" (see Bush, 2006 in OP) ... because they distinguish between having the data, and looking at it (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5845258). Hence they claim that its OK for them to posses much more data than they should posses, as long as they only look at the bits they are allowed to look at. Dangerous.

[mtgx]

And then they say "it's all legal, and Congress has known about it for years! Why act surprised?!"

[saraid216]

The correct response is, "This isn't surprise. This is anger."