You completely missed the point. The NSA is tracking everyone. They're building a database of everyone's activities. Nobody knows who the "terrorists" are going to be 20 years from now. The moment you become a suspect, they can bring up everything they've recorded you saying or doing and use it against you.
The NSA is above the law and the rules they follow are set by a secret court appointed by a single man who has his position for life.
Also extremely likely - the NSA/GCHQ/Whoever siphon off all "metadata".
At the next Boston bombing, or whatever, they analyse that metadata for the perpetrator. And the next one. And the next one. And build a profile of what a "terrorist's" communication patterns look like.
And then they single out everyone matching that profile and stick watches on them, or bring them in.
It's Minority Report without the psychics. Google Now for Homeland Security.
Wow, that never occurred to me. Analyzing Metadata really is a lot like "pre-crime".
Sure, in a sense all police or intelligence work can be looked at in a way that makes it seem "like pre-crime" - after all, crime prevention does have its merits. But putting every single citizen on the list is something different entirely and really does smack of "psychics".
The NSA is above the law and the rules they follow are set by a secret court appointed by a single man who has his position for life.