[uptown]

THE critical question (in my mind) isn't whether NSA/FBI agents are listening to people's phone calls, or reading people's emails. The key question is whether all of this information is being captured and retained and available on-demand (regardless of current or future legal authority). Does the government, or any of its agencies, affiliates, contractors, or allies keep a repository containing this data available for future analysis.

Answer that question - and answer it without linking it to "this program" because you've already said "this program doesn't authorize that" and don't link it to "this country" because you've said the laws of this country forbid that type of thing.

Plain and simple.

Does any representation of this information exist in any state (analog, digital, audio, waveform, transcription, encrypted, modified, converted, fucking pantomime) that differs from a layman's understanding of where their communications data resides?