Edward Snowden

For two years after the revelations by Edward J. Snowden, Europe was awash in talk about American excesses in mass surveillance, objecting to how the National Security Agency swept up emails and phone conversations -- even of political leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany -- in an American electronic net that seemed to envelop the Continent.

The U.S. House sent a bipartisan message Thursday, voting to end the practice of bulk collection of phone records conducted by the National Security Agency. The surveillance of such "metadata" was revealed last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, prompting public disapproval and congressional anger from lawmakers who said the intelligence agency was not forthcoming with Congress about the scope of their surveillance efforts.