Wikipedia states that circa.com is a recently acquired property of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, who is known for mandating stations to carry canned editorials as news [0]. Google also shows this report as surfacing ~month ago [1].
I agree that what the government did is insane, but this is a pretty poor source.
I think the article is wrong on the definition of "about data." The definition I read was, "about data" is information that mentions a foreign intelligence target, even if it's sent between two Americans domestically.
This was, apparently, perfectly legal to query as long as you were querying a foreign target. The NSA overstepped pretty egregiously and had to shut those queries down.
The article say it's data "about" Americans, which is true but confusing.
I agree that what the government did is insane, but this is a pretty poor source.
[0]: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/08/527462015/...
[1]: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%22I+think+what+this+e...