U.S. Government Has been Gathering Data from Internet, Telco, Media Firms

Verizon Wireless has been forced to hand over daily call detail records to the U.S National Security Agency. The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The U.S. Justice Department also secretly obtained Associated Press call records.

Google is fighting efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation requesting information about Google users. The secretive and warrantless electronic data gathering also has been declared unconstitutional in a federal court.

Is it all just a coincidence? You don't have to be a "conspiracy" theorist to see a pattern of overreach. What all three efforts seem to have in common is a broad search for information without a specific and clear relationship to an on-going criminal or clear national security investigation. 

Millions of U.S. residents therefore are having their records collected indiscriminately by agencies of the federal government, even when they are not suspected in any way of doing anything remotely criminal or dangerous to national security. 

Civil libertarians are right to be outraged and concerned.