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and the email addresses) is not protected. EndNote 4. The major difference between the content and the routing information is that you freely share that routing information with the world to make sure the telephone call gets connected or that the email is delivered.

At first glance, the NSA's gathering of information seems to fall outside the protection provided by the fourth amendment. The email and telephone numbers are information given that we willingly release to third parties to permit routing of our calls and email. The internet and financial information also represents data that we freely share with others to navigate the web or to purchase things in the market.

At second glance, the NSA's information gathering is different from other information gathered by the government on a piecemeal basis because it aggregates the information together. This aggregation and use of the information in ways no person would have anticipated may violate a person's reasonable expectations of privacy. While this should make a difference, the Supreme Court is probably more likely to find that the NSA's aggregation doesn't make a difference, reasoning that if the individual pieces of information can be obtained on their own, then aggregating them together does not make a difference.

Policy

Because the fourth amendment might not be sufficient protection, people must insist that a proper debate be had about what kind of information its government should be allowed to gather and retain on them. The current administration has done things behind closed doors, which should not be acceptable. Instead, it is time that we insist on a proper and open debate on the issue and that policy, and perhaps, the law change.

In the end, we should be striving for a change in government policy and the law. At the very least, if the NSA is going to allowed to gather and aggregate this data, it should only be given very limited powers to do so under unique circumstances that apply to a particular individual or group of individuals. It should also be given proper regulation and oversight to ensure that the rights of the individual are protected.

Endnotes:

1) Siobhan Gorman, NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data, Wall Street Journal, A1 (March 10, 2008), www.wsj.com.

2) U.S. Constitution, IV Amend.

3) Katz v. U.S., 389 U.S. 347 (1967).

4)Smith v. Maryland,442 U.S. 753 (1979); U.S. v. Forester, No. 05-50410 (9th Cir. 2007).

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