Snowden's first major revelation exposed the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata — every call made by every American — under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. A secret FISA court order required Verizon to hand over all call records 'on an ongoing daily basis.' In 2015, a federal appeals court ruled the program was illegal, stating Congress never authorized such sweeping collection. The USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 officially ended bulk collection, but the revelation shattered trust in intelligence oversight.