Then at any point in the future, if a target phone number becomes of interest (an arrested suspect’s cell phone, for example,) they can go back and query this massive database and find out every phone call made to or from that target number. Then they can track down those numbers and find out who is behind them.
Problem is, once you've been granted a warrant to get all the information at the start, you don't need to go back and ask a court permission to mine that data later. So what may be used to track down a known terrorist's other cell members today can be used by a political operative to get dirt on a potential opponent tomorrow, and there is no court or congressional oversight.
They get a new warrant every 90 days don’t they?
You’re neglecting the megadata they have on you. Prove they don’t have it.
I personally believe that’s what happened to Chief Justice John Roberts.
I have this nagging question that I want to put forward to those with like thinking minds:
We all know about word recognition software like Dragon. Many people use it to type their comments on the Free Republic by just talking into a microphone. There is software available to take the spoken word in one language and translate it to English.
So, lets say that all the phone conversations either by cell phone or land line were recorded and put into a voice recognition software and then stored as text. You could put a great deal of conversation on storage if it was in text. And, the storage capability is growing exponentially. Once in text form, you would also have the ability to do text searches using key words and other intelligent word searches using sophisticated software.
I believe it is true that the government does not actively listen to conversations. The huge number of phone conversations daily would make the storage of them impossible. I believe that it first converts conversations to text. Then, it searches conversations using computer technology. This is not active listening because it is in text form and may avoid the legal definition of wire tapping. I am no lawyer to know if it is wire tapping for sure. However, once conversation is identified as having possible illegal activity, the court process is used to bring up all the text material from the source telephone.
So, let’s say a group of phone numbers are of interest. They should be able to have the texts of all the phone calls from these source telephones.
Am I correct in this idea?