Thing is, we're concerned that the government is logging who you've called, and who calls you - not necessarily the content of those calls. You can find out a lot if you know who talks to who and with what frequency; a whole social network diagram can be built with that information alone. And that information is comparatively easy for computer systems to log and analyze without human intervention.
Question: Is the address of all the postal mail I receive and send subject to warentless logging? How about through a private courier, like UPS?
The question that needs to be asked with respect to information like this is what expectation of privacy do you have for that information? With addresses, you write it o the outside of the envelope, put it in a mailbox, and several dozen people see it between your mailbox and the recipient's box.probably the same with UPS/FedEx, etc. You put it out for view, so your expectation of privacy is minimal. With phone numbers you dial, I'm not so sure. Because the system is automated, fewer people are involved. And, with billing the way it is now, with less emphasis put on the distance of the call (local vs. intrastate long distance vs. interstate long distance vs. international), there's less of a business reason to track this information. But, still, you are putting the information in someone else's hands when you dial a phone, in that you are telling someone (or a computer someone else is using) where to direct your call when you dial. I suspect the expectation of privacy for that set of numbers is also minimal.
