It was probably test data
From what I've heard of these programs the real reason for slurping up everything appeared to be to get a data set they could use to test search and filtering algorithms. Its one thing to collect gobs of data, its something else to make sense of it, so the obvious thing to do is to collate raw data with known traffic and use this to refine your algorithms. Once you've got everything working you can reduce your data inflow because now you know what you're actually looking for.
The PR people trying to put a spin on this are just paid to put a spin on whatever isn't spinning. They probably don't have a very nuanced notion of what's going on and why.
