I know there is NO computer system in the world powerful enough to "listen" (i.e. analyze, record, track or otherwise account for) to all the traffic, cellular or land-line in the US. Just the meta-data that we kept from international sources (only one collection station) was in the multiple 10's of terabytes per day. You just can't store that much information much less process it. That information was scanned through on a "as needed" basis. The rest is dumped so the storage media can be written over continuously. Keep in mind that my site was only one site receiving data from one site. There is no way to track your conversations. It is technically possible to see when and from where and to whom and where a call was placed or received. You can flag numbers to be stored so that you can get historical use patterns. However, without a specific authorization (usually a court order), this cannot be against US persons.
You are right, we have given up too many of our rights. However, systems such as the ones the intel community have in place have prevented many attacks in the past several years AND have accounted for the death/destruction of a whole bunch of bad-guys. It's great for some E-3 to get the pictures back with boots on dead bad guys heads and a grinning SOF dude with a thumbs up saying "Thanks for the target!"
Unless you are doing something to give the gubment a reason to watch you, then whatever they have on you is NO MORE than a bigger version of the local phone book. Maybe your phone is unlisted, think the local cops can't get it with a court order?
Don't know, in some areas I agree with you. In others, I know a lot of what is going on and I know that there aren't 50,000 analysts sitting around trying to figure out why Joe Smith in Hoeboken called John Jones in Little Rock three times last week. What they are trying to do is figure out how many calls in how long to how many numbers is statistically relevant enough to throw up a flaf as a possible "network" of bad guys.
The gang MS-13 has a LOT of members in the US. We can't collect on them. Should we be able to? They are in many ways the most violent gang in this hemisphere. Personally, I say collect on them, prosecute the target, fix, find and kill them just like we do the ragheads. Without more sophisticated means, we can't do that. You'll never roll up that gangs leadership without allowing stuff like this.
Of course, if you are worried about your phone number. No one said it was mandatory to have a phone or for your wife, each kid, and you to have cell phones.
slide-flipper
