Do you remember the NSA? June of 2013 was the month that changed the way we see the internet. It was the month Edward Joseph Snowden began to give the world detailed descriptions of the NSA mass surveillance programs. 
The scandal that broke out put many people in a difficult position. The initial disclaimer at the beginning, after the ongoing leakage data turned into excuses from agencies, tech companies and the US government trying to reassure the online community.
In the end, there was the acceptance of responsibility by the NSA, which essentially stated that mass follow-up is being done for our sake as a self-appointed authority to protect the global community.
Since then, Congress has been trying to learn more about these NSA surveillance programs, and it seems it has not succeeded.
In a letter delivered yesterday to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a group of 14 lawmakers (eight Democrats and six Republicans) demanded to know how many Americans had data collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Article 702 is the legal justification for many of NSA's most invasive programs, such as PRISM that we know about its existence by 2013, but we still do not know what its scope is. So, Congress asked to learn.
Even before Snowden, congressional members were asking for details of how 702 is used. Of course NSA has never responded.
It is worth recalling that the last time Congress tried to make a service information accountable for its actions, the CIA invaded literally in congressional Senators' computers, to a flagrant violation of democratic rules for which the service still has no impact.
The fact shows that the government bodies are no longer able to keep these services accountable for anything. They act as authoritarian regimes embedded in a nominally democratic state.
