Does "collected" mean that these calls have been searched for criminal or terrorist activity? I recall that Clapper --or someone like him-- was using that distinction in order to claim that the NSA wasn't "collecting" the phone calls of US citizens.
edit: ah yes, it was Clapper; to Congress, in 2013. [1]
Actually, it means these records have been returned as part of queries.
We know the NSA collects closer to trillions of domestic records (from phone calls to text messages and emails) and brazenly lies about it to Congress.
> We know the NSA collects closer to trillions of domestic records (from phone calls to text messages and emails) and brazenly lies about it to Congress.
We know all of that to be false, according to Snowden's documents.
edit: ah yes, it was Clapper; to Congress, in 2013. [1]
[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/lawmakers-re...