May 2015 marked the concluding salvo of the National Security Agency Dragnet Program, as Congress officially declared it illegal and called for the NSA to cease and desist in its operation.

The agency kept fighting for their right to monitor U.S. citizens ever since the issue broke out in 2007, with both Bush and Obama administration claiming the Patriot Act as a ground for its defense. However, Congress finally ruled that the program far "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized."

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Strangely enough, the ruling followed the fact that the Patriot Act the NSA claims is about to expire by the end of the month, and the nation's legislators are gearing up to renew it with a few amendments that nevertheless limits the metadata collection program. Even without this fact, though, the Federal Court of Appeals recently judged that there is in fact no provision in Section 215 of the Patriot Act that provides for the authorization of the Dragnet program.

The Atlantic publication mentioned that after this result, the U.S. House of Representatives met to decide on the ultimate fate of NSA's Dragnet program. In an overwhelming vote of 338 to 88, the House voted to "end the National Security Agency's mass collection of phone records from millions of Americans with no ties to terrorism." This is in conjunction with the passing of the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a law that reins in surveillance by key security agencies while at the same time renewing important provisions of the Patriot Act.

Despite this news, though, many are still clamoring over the fact that while the NSA is finally in the process of winding down its Dragnet system, the legal battle that raged on for years and practically divided Congress ended because of the expiration of the Patriot Act alone. Many people feel that the issue regarding the legality of surveillance and invasion of privacy by federal agencies was never given much legal standing to begin with.

No matter what opinions one might have, though, the fact remains that finally, one of the greatest issues that plague the modern cyberspace-centered world, has come to a close. Whether or not this is the end of "legal" surveillance though, is a question for another day, reports said.

TagsNSA, dragnet, spy program, Patriot Act, spy