[em-bee]

in germany, austria and switzerland, the sharing of such information is illegal, and at best possible with a warrant. in the european union a general storing of all contact data is also not allowed. member states may only have laws that allow storing such data under very specific circumstances.

[yencabulator]

We are talking about the government being the party that wants the information, so in that environment needing a warrant is not a huge hindrance.

[em-bee]

that statement doesn't make much sense. only certain government institutions can ask for warrants and only judges can issue them. and warrants have to be specific for a cause. so getting this information is protected by all the necessary checks and balances.

[yencabulator]

Five Eyes/NSA/FISA have a history of counterexamples that make me think there's no reason to believe such laws prevent a government from surveilling whatever it wants.

If we know for a fact that phone call and internet metadata is routinely stored, I have no reason to expect mail or packages to be any different. (All the protections in that space tend to be for the contents not the metadata.)

[em-bee]

not here. this is for example germany:

Telecommunication secret is part of the german constitution

this is a quote from a decision of the german federal constitutional court (the german supreme court)

Dieses Grundrecht schützt nicht nur die Kommunikationsinhalte, sondern auch Informationen über Ort, Zeit sowie Art und Weise der Kommunikation. Insbesondere erstreckt sich der Grundrechtsschutz auf Telekommunikations-Verkehrsdaten, die Aufschluss über die an der Kommunikation beteiligten Personen und die Umstände der Kommunikation geben

this basic right not only protects the contents of communications but also information about place, time and form of the communication. especially it includes transport data (metadata) which can reveal the circumstances and the people involved in the communication.