nearly half of computer-related engineers/developers/technicians/analyst who refuse to believe that this and other similar programs that snowden revealed on purely ideological grounds is a huge source of fuel for my misanthropy; the fact that they tend to be the most successful and/or well paid in my field (software development) is a several fold bigger source.
from what i understand, this gives the power to monitor communications like emails / text messages. which in my opinion is fundamentally different from turning on your camera or microphone.
having said that, I haven't read into this in depth so perhaps that was outlined previously
(This is all decade old Snowden stuff, so I suspect their capabilities have expanded since then).
This being said, I assume much of what they do isn't exactly legal, so who knows. Given some of these treaties are secret, maybe they also have secret laws.