But does it do any good? Can it do any good?

So we know that if the NSA can get it, anyone can get it, but if the NSA can do it's job efficiently enough to prevent loss of life or destruction of property does the end justify the means, if only in terms of cost-benefit analysis? In order to examine this we need to break internet surveillance into several categories.

First, a distinction needs to be made between Privacy and Anonymity.

Privacy in this context pertains to the contents of messages sent between users on the internet.

Anonymity pertains to the identifiable characteristics pertaining to the sender and recipient of a message.

Next, a distinction needs to be made between two types of surveillance.

Selection is defined as the process of distinguishing the majority of collected internet traffic from a potential risk. This is the "Needle in the haystack" analogy.

Targeted is defined as the use of exploits to compromise targets in order to gather evidence or determine the identity of a suspect.