For the first time since 9/11, Congress has reduced the sweeping (and until now, expanding) intelligence gathering powers granted to the NSA. Among those things no longer kosher is the government’s bulk collection of private telephone calls and Internet metadata. Here’s WaPo on the newly retooled U.S. surveillance powers. The NSA still has the power to suck in plenty of your personal data, but at least for now, it sucks less.

+ There’s no way to explain the politics of what’s been cut out of the Patriot Act without considering the impact of Edward Snowden. In the NYRB, David Cole sums it up: “If Edward Snowden had not revealed the NSA’s sweeping surveillance of Americans, Congress would have simply renewed Section 215, the USA Patriot Act provision that the NSA relied on before its expiration on June 1—as Congress had done on seven previous occasions.”

+ Vox: Everyone’s heard of the Patriot Act. Here’s what it actually does.