FWIW I don&#x27;t believe that the NSA programs actually help keep us secure, similarly to how I don&#x27;t believe the TSA or any part of the &quot;Freedom&quot; Act has helped us significantly.  I believe in 30 years, children will be reading about this &quot;terrorist-scare&quot; the same way we were taught about the &quot;Red Scare&quot; during the 50s.<p>That said, it certainly is an easy security blanket for some people, to believe that &quot;if we were monitoring everything, all those lives could have been saved&quot;.  I just don&#x27;t believe it, and for example, it didn&#x27;t help stop the Boston bombings, even when that information was available.<p>But I&#x27;m curious if other people feel otherwise, and if so, what are their reasons.  Maybe I can be convinced otherwise.