Are The American People Being Spied On Or Not?

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108. Metadata collection and usage has moved far beyond pen-registers.

Read this Ars Technica article to get an idea of what the NSA can do today.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/what-the-nsa-can-do-with-big-data/

They only start with the phone call logs w/ numbers, timestamps, GPS coordinates of cell phones, etc. etc. etc. They add in bank account info they've got access to, back-door access to Internet big-wigs such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, court records and arrest records, airline flight records through Homeland Security, etc. etc. etc.

They have "iterators" which I see as being much like Google's spiders that index the web.

They construct social network models, sort of like Google+, that model who talks to who, categorizes people's relationships, to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Except Kevin Bacon is Osama Bin Laden, and you're a suspect if you're less than eight degrees separated.

With the combination of all the metadata they collect and create, all the software and algorithms they use to index it, find patterns, and sift out information, they don't need to listen to your calls at all.

If they pick up that you made a phone call first to your primary care physician, than a few days later to an OB/GYN, then a few days later to an oncologist, they don't need to listen to the calls to figure out what the conversations were about.

The NSA's PRISM program is Google for Tyrants.