Well, the renewal bill died in the Senate and the NSA is shutting down the program.
However;
There were no conversations tapped/recorded.
There is no implied right of
1st Amendment Right of Association for criminal or terrorist purposes. Lawful purposes -- yes.
If the LA Times citation of: "About 300 such searches were made in 2014" is correct -- then you are just getting your panties in a bunch over this portion of the PATRIOT Act.
Odds are: There has been no compromise of your privacy.
Mobile phone calls and VOIP use SIP encryption and the message packets take the route of least resistance. Consequently, the routing methods cannot be predictable -- any supposed possible interception might only be partial.
The real intrusion into privacy is not covered by this bill.
The internet data (and probably this entire thread) is being scrapped, legally, and databased possibly as it is a public conversation.
But what of instant messaging text, IM video and audio?
The above communication has no expectation of privacy legally under US law.
The Dutch Government is more forthcoming in inquiry of these matters ... Somehow they can function without a law like the PATRIOT Act ...
Hey look at the monkey! The phone meta-data is inconsequential. Congress is full of shit (as usual).
Are "real" terrorists really that stupid to communicate in a venue subject to this scrape? Or, are we just stopping the idiot wannabes?