We're the phone company

An article in the USA Today detailing the NSA's massive phone record collection program has been a topic of discussion this week.

The fourth amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Of course when the founding fathers penned the Bill of Rights they had no idea there would be such a thing as a telephone.

Ever since Olmstead the courts and congress have struggled to reconcile the telephone and the fourth amendment. The NSA phone database controversy is just the latest chapter.

But there is something else going on here. Something far more pervasive.

The NSA phone record collection program only works because the government is getting information private industry already has. Shouldn't people who are concerned the government knows who they are calling be even more worried Verizon, AT&T and Bell South have this information?

Unless your name is Abdul and you are alternating calls between Pakistan and a chemical lab it is unlikely the government will take an interest in who you like to chat with. On the other hand, if the phone companies were clever they could use everyone's calling patterns for all sorts of potentially lucrative product targeting efforts.

For all I know they already are.

While it's true a phone company would struggle to deny you your life or your liberty, they could certainly do a number on your pursuit of happiness.

Especially around dinner time.

Well folks, I'm here to tell you I have a solution to all this call tracking business.

Unfortunately, it involves carrier pigeons.