The bulk telephony metadata collection program was "approved" by the secret FISA court, which, despite some judicial hand-wringing and well-documented government abuse, still eventually goes along with over 90% of government requests for information. The FBI has systematically abused its authority to gather information using National Security Letters (NSLs), and steadfastly resists any attempt to challenge them in court.

The exception can swallow the rule. It will not roll back the mass surveillance apparatus to close the front door but leave the windows open. Not to mention the still open back door, where NSA secretly takes individuals' data without permission form the tech companies.

I'm glad to see the tech industry is not so eagerly giving the government customers' private information and spending at least some resources protecting users' privacy rather than lobbying for immunity from anticipated customer lawsuits. (See FISA Amendments Act of 2008). The telecoms ought to be giving rebates and apology letters to the customers' whose private information they so readily handed over to the government.

We can no longer settle for better than nothing when it comes to reining in the surveillance state. Government officials have lied to Congress and the American public about the scope of surveillance and gone to extraordinary lengths to punish and silence whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Thomas Drake and journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. We need to see the tech companies' change in posture for incremental step that it is, and continue to demand surveillance reform in the measure of leaps and bounds, not just baby steps.