It's All About Security

Are you concerned about the NSA getting the phone records of, basically, every phone call made in the United States?

I am just curious. It is being called "metadata". What is metadata? Well, Techterms.com defines it this way:

Metadata describes other data. It provides information about a certain item's content. For example, an image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

In the NSA case, this is phone numbers and more. The calling number, the called number, and the duration of the call. It might include the names of the owners of said phone numbers or it might not, that part is unclear at the moment. The NSA is not only gathering this data (and has been for quite some time) but it is storing it for future use. If they determine that a number belongs to a certain person of interest, they will be able to go back and search through this metadata for patterns of calls, presumably to build a case against that person (and others, I would guess, found to be involved in whatever activity that was of interest).

No big deal, right? What harm can come of this? After all, it is just phone numbers and call duration.

But who will get access to this data? Will it be restricted to the NSA and only sifted through  by them to collect information about suspects involved in terror attacks? or will it, someday, be accessed by political operatives to gather information about those they see as political opponents?

Why... that's silly, you say, what can they possibly find out?

Calls to one's gynecologist.
Calls to Planned Parenthood.
Calls to an abortion clinic.
Calls to a psychiatrist or psychologist.
Calls to other political opponents.
Calls to reporters.
Calls to sex talk lines.
Calls to escort services.
Calls to girlfriends or boyfriends by married people.
Calls to stockbrokers.

All of which include date, time of day, duration, and number of calls.

Quite a bit of this can lead to further investigation which might reveal information about people that could be used to control them.

So, still feel complacent?