As I understand it, the metadata is held by ATT, Verizon, Sprint and the like and can be obtained by the government via a court order.
This keeps the government from tracking Freepers and such but allows access to the phone records of the bad guys. That makes sense to me.
This is an important point. Correct me if I’m wrong.
That is correct. And, according to Sen. Mike Lee, NSA’s ability to access is not hampered by the process, due to new technology that has been implemented.