We are NOT talking about content. Meta data is the outside information, not the inside information. We are also NOT talking about ISPs, rather cell phone carriers. What is collected is source phone number, destination phone number, length of the call - the information needed to make the connection.
I know, I said that in my original post, then got off on a tangent about email, which is another issue, whether you own the content once you send it over the internet. Some argue that once you turn it over to third party for delivery they own it.