NSA supposedly cancels bulk collection of phone call records Since the Terrorism Scare of 2001-2006ish the NSA has been collecting telephone records of every phone call made in the USA. The theory was to find the needle-in-the-haystack the NSA first needed the haystack, and that by having records of all phone calls the NSA could build a map of all associations and therefore find The Terrorists. The program became widely known with the Edward Snowden revelations, and was 'shut down' with a 2015 law, The Freedom Act. That act preserved parts of the program, and is due to expire at the end of the year unless the Trump Administration or Congress acts.