There seems to be a wholescale hysterical neurosis around the entire issue. The narrative on HackerNews is that every piece of electronic communication is monitored and stored. The majority of HackerNews contributors actually believe this.
But it's a plain fact that the NSA intercepts and scans whatever it can, wherever it can. And that it retains as much as it can, for as long as it can, following an elaborate triage strategy. Or at least, they claim so in various reports and presentations. It could all be bullshit, I suppose ;)
Also, isn't there some evidence that Google helped the NSA develop XKeyscore etc?