According to Russ Tice, the NSA has been conducting full-take domestic content collection on everyone.
In other words, not only metadata but full recordings and content of anything they can feasibly store—phone calls, text messages, internet conversations, video chat.
Collecting on Americans in such a manner satisfies legal requirements because the very definition of collection has been twisted to effectively mean accessing intercepted content present in storage.
The term metadata in particular was intentionally bandied about as a means of distracting from the fact NSA is getting everything. The metadata programs killed by congress amounted to little more than a dog and pony show, sacrificing deprecated programs for political ends. Personally I think it was a brilliant damage control measure.
Snowden arguably didn't help matters either, constantly using the term himself. The content he leaked was largely from JWICS, which wouldn't contain documents outlining the gory details of full-take domestic surveillance. Those likely are heavily compartmented, and reside on much more secure networks.
In other words, not only metadata but full recordings and content of anything they can feasibly store—phone calls, text messages, internet conversations, video chat.
Collecting on Americans in such a manner satisfies legal requirements because the very definition of collection has been twisted to effectively mean accessing intercepted content present in storage.
The term metadata in particular was intentionally bandied about as a means of distracting from the fact NSA is getting everything. The metadata programs killed by congress amounted to little more than a dog and pony show, sacrificing deprecated programs for political ends. Personally I think it was a brilliant damage control measure.
Snowden arguably didn't help matters either, constantly using the term himself. The content he leaked was largely from JWICS, which wouldn't contain documents outlining the gory details of full-take domestic surveillance. Those likely are heavily compartmented, and reside on much more secure networks.