[afshin]

Encryption does not fix this completely even if you assume all texts and voice calls are encrypted. The metadata is equally important:

- your location in time and space

- the numbers you contacted

- the duration of contact

[ikeboy]

Metadata is useful but it's a stretch to call it equally important as actual call content.

If you were spying on someone, what would you rather know: all the above metadata you listed, or a full recording of all their calls?

[michaelt]

If I had a choice between a full recording of all their phone calls, or a trace of their movement with 50 meter precision? Good chance I'd go for the second one to be honest - unless I knew for sure they made a lot of voice calls.

[desertrider12]

Metadata from one person isn't worth anything, but the graph of who's contacting who is very useful. Plus, it's computationally feasible to do that graph analysis on everyone, while listening to every call wouldn't be.

[ceejayoz]

> If you were spying on someone, what would you rather know: all the above metadata you listed, or a full recording of all their calls?

That depends entirely on the purpose of the spying.

If you're spying with a goal of assassination, the location data from their morning commute might be far more valuable.