"No discernible Impact" on preventing acts of terrorism.
But that was never the end goal of bulk metadata collection. Terrorism was the merely the excuse to invoke those powers.
The end goal is and always has been, to give the U.S Govt unfettered access to all communications of it citizens for whatever purposes it desires without having to go thru the legal process (not even the ridiculously permissive FISA court).
Prediction - They will use every excuse in the book to hold onto this capability.
>> The end goal is, and always has been, to give the U.S. govt unfettered access to all communications of its citizens<< I sort of feel like this glosses over the rest of us out here in the world. We don't have anyone to complain to that can/will do anything and are far more likely to suffer from US government actions. It's worse that we suffer this crap that US citizens do, not better as we don't get any say in it.
But that was never the end goal of bulk metadata collection. Terrorism was the merely the excuse to invoke those powers. The end goal is and always has been, to give the U.S Govt unfettered access to all communications of it citizens for whatever purposes it desires without having to go thru the legal process (not even the ridiculously permissive FISA court).
Prediction - They will use every excuse in the book to hold onto this capability.