It did though, didn't it? Intelligence organisations worldwide execute their operations in total secrecy and have hidden agreements with international counterparts to share information on each others' citizens in a way that bypasses the laws and constitutions of their host nations. Secret plans that circumvent the law is pretty much the definition of conspiracy.
Just because they didn't need to 'circumvent the law' doesn't mean what they did was any less than subversive. Thanks to secret courts the law is whatever they want it to be.
Google prism, xkeyscore, TAO.
Using an intentionally built in Windows backdoor, it did, yes. Instead they relied on good ol' completely unencrypted traffic flowing across wires they had hooks in.
They weren't breaking your crypto to snoop on you though. Turns out the public information about you is enough to generate a pretty reliable profile of a person.
PRISM utilized entirely public info? Information regarding every phone call you've ever made, including time, recipient, length, and location are public?