system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What did Edward Snowden actually reveal abot the U.S Government?

I just keep hearing "they have all your data" and I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

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Edit: thanks to everyone whos contributed, although I still remain confused and in disbelief over some of the things in the comments, I feel like I have a better grasp on everything and I hope some more people were able to learn from this post as well.
gpt
In a nutshell he revealed data that showed that the US government, and multiple allied governments had the ability to do things like listen to everyone's phone calls, read their texts, their emails, follow their internet searches, track their locations (via GPS in phones) and also remotely activate people's cell phone cameras and microphones to listen and see what people are doing in real time.

In short, it was estimated that the data revealed that the US and it's allies had transparency into roughly 80% of all digital communications in the US. 

It's less that this was "Bad" honestly, more that these agencies shouldn't have been doing A. to US Citizens, and B. on US soil and C. that the major data providers, the Verizons, AT&Ts, etc, were providing the "keys" to their networks for the government to provide this access.