Yes, and yes. And I would rather no one have known about any of it. It's efficacy is damaged by public knowledge.
You realize that terror networks had basically managed to blind us with a communications blackout before this, right? Once they realized we could capture internet traffic, they stopped sending emails. Instead they kept a gmail inbox with draft emails and passed the account information around on scraps of paper. That made our massive technological advantage basically worthless. We were reduced to humint infiltration of terror networks. Which is difficult, and arduous, and unreliable. It's what put us on our heels and had us guessing at shadows before 9/11.
But with the cooperation of all the major ISPs and search companies, we conquered that challenge and have made amazing progress in destroying major terror networks around the world over the past 5 years. And now what? All of it down the toilet so that you can have affirmed what you likely already suspected if you weren't a dimwit: that the government reads your email. So what? If you're not a god damn terrorist it doesn't matter.
Now look where you stand: The president has told you he's not going to change the programs, your gut tells you that's the truth. Nothing will change about how we gather intelligence. But the enemy is now aware of our tactics. We've gained nothing and lost substantially.
So you don't see the danger in either of those two things? Remember we're the country of Japanese Internment and the McCarthy hearings in The House Committee on Un-American Activities, which fucked up a lot of lives on the mere suspicion of foreign sympathies.
You think our government isn't capable of doing even worse now, with the additional powers it's gained over the years? It may take decades to come to a head, but these 2 things you love so much inevitably lead to abuse, and I've seen nothing more than airy promises and vague, ever-changing numbers attempting to rationalize their use.
"ZOMG it saved us from 7, no 8, no 11, no 50 terrorist attacks! Yeah fifty! That's a good number for the media!" -The NSA
If it saved us from so many, you'd think they could release the technical details for the experts to confirm, at least the specifics about how the metadata helped, but they haven't. Hell why didn't they reveal these purported 50 thwartings as they occurred? Don't have to go into detail, just say "BREAKING NEWS! Today agents of the NSA working in conjunction with local authorities thwarted a terrorist attack in its infancy... *plaster terrorist face and biography on news for two weeks*"
No, this program has no rational justification; that or the government is concealing it for God knows why. It starts with terrorists, and if it's not dismantled it will end with political opponents; all as soon as a few people not as cuddly as Obama get into the right positions.
And even when that happens, people like you will still defend it for some reason, and say that ruining or even ending the lives of a few innocents is worth the cost of preventing a miniscule amount of death.