It's easy to forget how things were before the Snowden revelations, since Internet privacy issues have been covered much more extensively by the media since then.
(Edited to add "Internet" above.)
> Until Snowden, the idea that Western governments would routinely collect, store, and analyze our personal data sounded like a conspiracy theory to many people.
> The revelations were shocking: the scope and depth of the NSA’s collection of private data stopped looking like a conspiracy theory and became a cold, hard reality we all had to face.
(Edited to add "Internet" above.)
> Until Snowden, the idea that Western governments would routinely collect, store, and analyze our personal data sounded like a conspiracy theory to many people.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/the-snowden-lega...
> The revelations were shocking: the scope and depth of the NSA’s collection of private data stopped looking like a conspiracy theory and became a cold, hard reality we all had to face.
https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/30/5224680/the-year-in-revi...
> There was a time when the idea that the U.S. government might spy on your web activity might have seemed like a far-fetched conspiracy theory.
> But that was before Edward Snowden.
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/government-see-website.ht...