<i>Not tasked with collection, that would be the NSA</i><p>Not to get too far away from your overall point, which may be valid, but...  is it relevant what any of these agencies is &quot;tasked&quot; with on paper?  It&#x27;s quite clear, and has been for decades, that these agencies are so powerful that they are effectively outside &#x2F; above the law, and can do whatever they want.  The NSA wasn&#x27;t &quot;tasked with&quot; conducting indiscriminate surveillance on damn near everybody alive, but they did it anyway, lied about it, and never got punished.  The CIA wasn&#x27;t tasked with experimenting on innocent American citizens by dosing them with drugs against their will and without they knowledge, but they did it anyway.<p>As far as I&#x27;m concerned, every single shred of skepticism and scorn for these agencies that you encounter, is something they <i>earned</i> through their actions.<p>I&#x27;m sure there are good people inside the CIA, FBI, NSA, TSA, DHS, etc.  And I feel bad for saying hurtful things towards or about those people.  But their agencies have created a state of war between themselves and the American people, if not the entire global population.  I&#x27;m sorry, but if the good people inside these agencies don&#x27;t want to get slagged, the onus is on them to find a way to change things, or to get out.