[TommyDale]

Telephone number databasing has been around for years, but no one got too worried about Radio Shack, Sears, AT&T, etc. from gathering all your information. But Heaven forbid if National Security requires gathering calling patterns. Especially if a Republican is in office.

[joonbug]

Agree. Credit card companies have far more personal information on Americans than the NSA does.

Funny how government can only encroach on civil liberties when a Republican is in the White House. Just like the premise that only white people can be racists.

[billbears]

One aspect is private industry and the numbers are collected by my actions of doing business with one of the companies. The other is collection of private information by the federal government. There are two sets of rules that cannot be compared.

The Framers were concerned with the Constitutionality of a census and some Republicans today would gleefully hand over anything and everything to the government under the false auspices of 'safety'. My, how far we've come...Wonder if 'conservatives' will be against it when Democrats come back to power one day.