Considering that a lot of US folks seem to be pretty sanguine about US government on foreigners this way, as a foreigner I'm very happy that your dear government is of "equal opportunity" mindset here by extending the comfort of being spied upon by United States to it's own citizens.
But remember, you voted for Bush, you voted for Obama and you voted for Congress members. We didn't get a vote. This is your fault.

i don't understand what this privacy thing is all about... terrorist and criminals need to hide their data which is understandable. what is that a common US citizen wants to hide... NSA doesn't have time to look at each and every once private data... even if they look, do they come to your house and point finger at you. no. if some data is so private then why to upload it to internet.
what will NSA get watching everyone's data, nothing. they are just trying to protect you by fishing out terrorist.
think what will happen if NSA doesn't monitor all data... there will be 1000s of Boston bombing taking place. just for your privacy you are going to sacrifice so many brothers and sister's of your country.
(English is not my first language)

Fallout? There most likely won't be any. People quite fighting for their freedoms in most every country along time ago. In the U.S. this it was public knowledge the $2.7 billion NSA complex up in Utah was started last year. But thank you Will and Gizmag for having the courage to publish these new facts. The police state is already here. It started with allowing police to do random car searches, then moved into monitoring your phones without warrants, then because of the Boston bombing people were being thrown out of there homes on TV during unlawful searches. It was never going to be a quick drop and a sharp snap, rather a slow tightening of the rope until we suffocate. Worse yet, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was ratified last month to allow broader use of the military in the states without consent by the governors or president. The last breath now rests in the hands of gun control. People say if the military comes for you, you won't have a chance and I agree. But if the US military comes for the U.S. citizens it doesn't stand a chance, we out number them with guns by 300 to 1 although they are better organized. They are also made of many loyal brother's, sister's husband's, wife's, father's, mother's, and citizens who won't fight with their family's, neighbor's and friend's. Well so long as they don't train and use foreign troops and automated weapons like drones... Let's make sure it never goes this far (because hope hasn't been working much lately) by making sure congress understands our position, otherwise you can expect to be told to flee your house when there is an intruder (as they are told in the U.K.) rather then allowed to defend yourself and family.

Is this news? CBS have done a 3 whole series on it:
http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/

What is shocking? You believe to be more than the rest of the world?!!!

I cried for my country tonight.

$20M doesnt seem like a lot of money for a program this far-reaching. I would doubt that its feasible to monitor that volume of data effectively with $20M

Considering how much prostrating is done before other security themed posts here, it would be a bit hypocritical for Gizmag to get uppity about this program.

I'll bet every person working for an internet marketing company is laughing their heads off at how lame the NSA is.

I don't see what the big deal is. I'd rather have my chats and emails about coworker gossip and hanging out at Lake Erie glossed over by some computer algorithm if that means helping to stop people planning to harm others, than to have my private gossip emails about coworkers and hanging out at Lake Erie be the reason people died.