"targeting"

from WIRED: Threat Level

excerpt:

Pay careful attention to the word "targeting." That would be when the eavesdroppers are targeting a number or a known person. Until the government has that, any interception, data mining or listening in on conversations doesn't count as surveillance. In other words, if EVERYONE is the target, no one is the target and it's not surveillance.

Giant driftnets dipped into the internet's bit streams? Data mining of the records of all phone calls placed in America to find suspicious patterns? Computer scanning of emails and phone calls for key words? Not surveillance, according to the snoopers.

Also if you are an American outside the country, the new bill just dictated that you left your 4th Amendment rights at the border. It's not surveillance if you are across the border.


More:

Administration Response to Spy Bill Critics Shows Why the "Surveillance Gap" Should Never Have Been Filled