The NSA is considering leaving people's phone call records "in" the phone companies — and searching it there, Prism-style, still without individual warrants.

This would not respect the 4th Amendment, or our freedom, but it would given them a way to confuse the issue.

Note the argument that it is ok to collect everyone's communications records ("metadata") because they are "information that the telecommunications companies obtain and keep for their own business purposes." The implicit premise is that if it is legitimate for a business to amass certain information about those who choose to be its clients, then the government is entitled to systematically seize all that information. This is blatant contempt for the 4th Amendment.

However, it is also true that any data that businesses record about people could be obtained by the state, and amounts to a massive dossier about each person. We must make businesses collect and retain less information about people — regardless of "business purpose".