I heard someone at the WSJ more or less defending the surveillance of phone companies, and that surprised me.  He basically said that based on a 1979 ruling, people don't really have an expectation of privacy with phone numbers anyway, so it wasn't a bid deal.  I think the facts of the present situation are significantly different than what was going on 30+ years ago, so one shouldn't apply the same standard.With that said, the journalist did raise an interesting point.  He felt that the NSA scandal was not as troublesome as the IRS scandal.  While the NSA scandal was about hypothetical or potential violation of privacy rights, the IRS scandal was about actual violation of rights.  In other words, we don't have to wait for something "scary" to happen down the road via abuse of power, since it already happened in our midst.  I think that's a good way of thinking about it.