I read this today so thought I would share it here: https://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-phone-snooping-illegal-court-finds-2020-9

Despite monitoring all the mobile phone data of millions of Americans for years, the NSA could only point to a single criminal case where this data was used, and it turns out that even then it was irrelevant to the conviction. So not only did the mass surveillance not prevent a single terrorist attack, but it wasn't even useful in convicting terrorists after the attacks had taken place. That, of course, didn't stop them from blatantly lying and saying that such programs are vital to preventing terrorist attacks.

Now, ask yourself why the government would continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on mass surveillance when they knew it wasn't preventing attacks or leading to convictions?

Population control.