These people seem to think that the NSA is only collecting data to stop mass shootings and normal crimes.
The concept of using this data to stamp out more systematic terrorism, espionage and other nation state attacks doesn't occur to them.
The concept of using this data to stamp out more systematic terrorism, espionage and other nation state attacks doesn't occur to them.
It's also a situation where having useless data costs next to nothing (economically at least, philosophically is a different debate), but missing even a small detail could be critical.
I have no reason to believe that that has changed, that they have stopped collecting all of this data that is so easily available to them.
With that in mind, I do not believe that "it is very unlikely any call" by anyone in my family was included in the catch. I believe it very likely that many calls by many people in my family was -- and continues to be -- included in their "net".
Keep in mind that they need court ordered approval to access the data so without that existing context it's off limits.
You should be more concerned with what your service providers and companies like Google or Facebook are doing with that data because they aren't limited by FISA courts.
Also, I'd like to point out that the fisa courts do not limit anything. They are a rubber stamp, that never rejects anything.
> 534 million records of phone calls and text messages
But we don't know how that breaks down to "phones" as you say. I don't even like to use my phone but I bet if you count my texts and calls in a year it would be in the 1000s of records.
No I don't believe that there are "500 million phones going to suspected terrorists in the US" but there may be 500 messages from individuals who have suspected connections to terrorists and foreign agents. And you would never know for sure unless you can look at their metadata to analyze those suspected connections.
You're right that the FISA approval rate is incredible. But it's still a record of requests made (which helps prevent abuse). and as I understand it that number of requests is only in the ~2000 range.
Again, it's a much better situation than the level of scrutiny you're holding to companies like Google/Facebook/Microsoft or ISPs. And those companies aren't even offering national security as a service.
I guess if you just make 1 fisa request that says "give me everything" then that's good enough, right?
At least with those other companies I have a choice to use them or not. If I don't like Google I can use duck duck go, or something else.
The government doesn't give me a choice of whether I am spied on or not.