You are confused because NYT headline is straight up false.
Nothing was even curtailed, the only difference is that now the NSA has some massive permanent power to get the exact same meta data as before but now it puts the burden on telecoms to keep it.
Zero of the existing programs that Snowden revealed to the world have been ended as a result of this bill passing.
Yep. Secret courts stay, data collection stays, nothing has changed. Well, one thing has changed. They've raised the bar yet again for becoming a telecommunications company...
This is what is known as a public/private partnership. The private organization is paid to be a mercenary for the government. Of course mercenaries are much more ethical and are much less likely to do unethical things for government money vs government employees. /s
Indeed - the "surveillance as a business model" corporations finally got their letter of marque.
It is a very nice arrangement. Google/Facebook/telcos/etc get an official justification to continue their piracy of personal data ("we are only saving what the government requires us to save"). Meanwhile, the government gets to get all the data they want without a warrant: they simply give the appropriate corporation a wink and nudge and corporation volunteers the data.
Nothing was even curtailed, the only difference is that now the NSA has some massive permanent power to get the exact same meta data as before but now it puts the burden on telecoms to keep it.
Zero of the existing programs that Snowden revealed to the world have been ended as a result of this bill passing.