Having read the specific denials of a backdoor from most of the companies listed under the Prism program, it's quite clear that unless they were lying, what Prism is all about, is a colocated server that separates or mirrors specific user data upon request. Therefore, everyone else's data would not be observable, just the two-deep contacts or however deep the NSA would request.
Does the reveal of Prism harm national security? I don't see how. If you were doing bad things and you weren't already paranoid, you're probably already dead, caught or about to be. You can't tell if your data is being mirrored and searched by the NSA, no matter how hard you tried, unless you were able to hack into a company's server and move about the network, but terrorists aren't in the business of being top-notch hackers.
The issue for the rest of us is to know whether or not our data was accidentally or intentionally caught up in a dragnet. The FISA court is no safeguard against errors and accidental violations of an innocent American's 4th Amendment right -- if it happens, no one will tell you that it happened.
I imagine that many members of Congress up for reelection in 2014 (think House of Representatives) will be quiet until they figure out where the public stands, then move to take up populist positions.
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