I think this whole argument in favor of Snowden and the supposed NSA and the "surveillance state" is based on people NOT knowing how the system works. Remember the SNAFU of 9/11, of not being able to connect the dots? What is going on here is that the NSA needs to collect and archive "dots" in order to be able to connect them. Paranoia that the NSA is collecting wholesale conversations says more about the American psychology than anything else. The NSA could not possibly analyze every conversation that is going on, even automation would not allow this. During Vietnam there was the very same thing, but we just called them the "Army Spies" back then the same paranoia existed. Given many, many more billions of dollars it would be possible to collect this information on every communication and conversation, but not to actually analyze it. And once collected it could not be stored for very long.
What IS being collected in the "dots" are points to construct a "relational database" which can then be interrogated for "connections" against which to then conduct more traditional investigative workups for real terrorists and what they may be planning. To this point I don't think Snowden's actions actually have harmed this effort, what is more likely that his actions will start a cascade of irrational reactions from the paranoid among us.