That the NSA and GCHQ were illegally collecting phone records and internet browsing details of anyone they wanted.

The fact that the UK government recently passed a law[0] to make this legal makes it pretty clear that this is real.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-chart...

How do you know what grecy told their parents?

I'm sorry but you are either implying that the leaks were fake or that 'parents and friends' are always right. In both cases I'll disagree heavily.

I think they're implying that the leaks often don't say what people think they say.

(Not agreeing, just explaining.)

How often does that happen?

What does this comment even mean?

It means that people think the leaks say what Greenwald claimed they said instead of what they actually said, and when those people tell their parents what Greenwald said, they sound like lunatics. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20456352

A, the BS "there's an added hop so it's not happening/serious" defense. People still fall for this?

The added hop means that the NSA can't request anything they want from the Internet messaging companies. They can only see foreigner data from the specific users the FBI has already wiretapped via court order. There are no leaked documents that say otherwise and plenty of documents that corroborate my assertions.

This is why it hasn't been ruled illegal. Do people actually believe that phone metadata collection is illegal but the crazy thing Greenwald misread PRISM to be is not? That's going to trip grecy's university-educated family's bullshit detector.

Pro tip: Read the leaks. They are actual documents, that can be read. Try it!

That's what I did and what I suspect grecy did not do.