It is understandable that the first reaction of most decent people to the news that the US government is recording everyone's phone and Internet usage is one of complete outrage and a sense of gross violation. But I want to suggest that a primary focus of our anger should be the wastage of money and other resources, as well as the opportunity cost. Also, if you have an innate wicked sense of humor, I hope to persuade you to LOL at our friends in "military intelligence". Please follow me below the orange pretzel.
A thought experiment if you please. The USA has a total population of roughly 300 milion. Let us suppose 200 million Americans use cell phones and/ or the Internet and are thus targets for this data mining exercise. I assume the other 100 million are omitted from the search on account of they are children under 10, they live in institutions, are patients with Alzheimer's disease etc.
Now let us suppose there are 20,000 potential terrorists in our midst, either lone wolves or in sleeper cells. Remember, they might be WASPs called John Smith who have secretly converted to Islam and failed to change their name or to grow beards.
Now let us suppose we have an algorithm (the al in "algorithm" means the word was originally Arabic so maybe we need a more patriotic word) for analyzing phone and Internet usage that is 99% sensitive and 99% specific to recognize a terrorist. I am a medical doctor, so let me explain that the sensitivity of a test is the probability the test will correctly identify the condition, which is this case is being a terrorist. Specificity is the probability that the test will correctly exclude a non terrorist from further intervention/ being sent to Guantanamo Bay or whatever the government has in mind for identified terrorists. Any doctor or researcher will confirm that 99% sensitivity or specificity is accuracy beyond anyone' wildest dreams, but this is a thought experiment.
Applying this heroically accurate algorithm to the USA population, we find that, of the 20,000 terrorists, 19,800 are successfully identified and neutralized, and 200 slip the net. Meanwhile, 198 million Americans are accurately cleared of suspicion, while two million innocent Americans are labelled as terrorists when they are not. So, airports in the America are reduced to chaos as two million random Americans are put on no flight lists and what have you, while 200 terrorists are left free to perpetrate an outrage such as the Boston Marathon bombing every week for four years.
Perhaps it is time to investigate the officials behind this program as potentially agents of influence of some foreign power seeking to destroy the United States. It might also be a good idea to improve Math education in US schools so that people can more easily detect the flaws in "military intelligence" thinking.