the actual truth about the nsa spying story is that it wasn't actually news - we'd known all of this for years.

the EU got very upset about this, in the 90s.

if anything, what came out around snowden, etc made it seem like the practice is more restricted than it actually is.

i did not hear echelon mentioned once in the whole fiasco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON