I think those assumptions are not supported by the available evidence[1], and that the authors they know this. Who cares what the NSA says? I'm looking at the same thing the authors are presenting and drawing different conclusions.

[1] Including the abundance of evidence already available about XKEYSCORE.

You have every right to disagree. :)

I think erring on the side of the assumption that is bad for everyone is more likely to be true. Especially since its consistent with the NSA's overreach in other areas.

For instance:

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/318515-nsa-admits-analy...

or

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/nsa-often-broke-rules-o...

If they break the law over 2,500 times a year with no apparent consequences, do you honestly think its likely you are right? If so, good on you.

Personally, I'd rather assume things are more in line with the other abuses than dismiss them out of hand.

In what way is the assumption that they are tagging/tracking the sessions not consistent with:

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/press_room/2013/30_July_2013....

?

The fact some are US-based? But we already know they violate that regularly, 'accidentally'.

The volume of data? We already know they have datacenters large enough to store and analyze it.

I'm genuinely curious why you draw those conclusions.