Here is more reason not to fear that Big Brother is eavesdropping on you: the sheer volume of calling activity, both as to hours spent and number of messages, makes this impossible for Uncle Sam to do.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (part of the U.S. Department of Labor) publishes, as part of its American Time Use Survey, two tables on Telephone Calls, Mail and E-Mail. A recent Forbes article titled "The Decade in Data" provides added data. BLS data show how much time callers spend daily on calling activities.
Of particular interest is data from the Forbes article on US usage of messaging over the Internet. It shows that in June 2009 daily text message volume was 4.5 billion, up 11,000-fold in just 9 years. Daily e-mail volume in 2000 was 12 billion daily, and then skyrocketed to 247 billion daily messages in 2009.
This means that in one year at the June 2009 number per day, Americans send over 1.6 TRILLION text messages; and at the 2009 daily rate, Americans send nearly ONE TRILLION e-mails every four days, which works out to some 90 TRILLION e-mails annually.
Let's see the government read all that traffic!!!!
Bottom Line. Text and e-mail away, and worry more about the government snooping on your health data to decide what your health insurance can cover and how much your doctor gets reimbursed, than on spooks snooping your Internet life.
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