[oceanview]

your face is also personally identifiable information. I would ask you the same question - many cities are putting in surveillance cameras in public places - does the government need a warrant to take a photo of you and store it digitally? does that violate the 4th amendment?

they can't get a warrant in advance, because they don't know what they are looking for until they can demonstrate calling patterns that are suspicious. they need the data first to be able to do that. the same type of data mining could be done on financial records (and likely is) - patterns of the opening of bank accounts by persons.

look, I understand your concern on this. I'll admit - this practice walks right up to the line. but absent this, we are basically ceding free use of the telecommunications and financial networks to persons who would conduct domestic terrorism - if the idea is to catch them in advance, to thwart the act - some accomodations must be made.

[ndt]

"...does the government need a warrant to take a photo of you and store it digitally? does that violate the 4th amendment?"

No, there is no expectation of privacy in public places it's pretty well settled law. I don't like the idea of city wide government run cameras but as the rulings Ive seen come down on the issue of cameras in public I don't think it would be a violation of the 4th.

The analogy is good but fails in a specific and important way. Before even getting into issues of constitutionality, one must look at specific statues and the specific statue in this case explicitly forbids the government from gathering this information from telecoms.

"they need the data first to be able to do that. the same type of data mining could be done on financial records (and likely is)"

Again, banking transactions (which the feds do go through) are not covered by the Telecommunications act so the analogy fails.

If we need to change the law then we change the law, that is how this country work. We do not choose one man or one administration and give them a pass on obeying the law. It is frightening and pathetic how many here are fine with abandoning the constitution when it is our party in power. The precedents we set will continue.