You could learn a lot about someone by examining what they looked at on the internet, what they bought online, with whom they communicated, etc.. This is the sort of stuff the FBI was collecting under those National Security Letters that likely went to every internet provider in the country.
One company owner went public after a court ruled that he could. See Feds collecting hoards of personal Internet data:
"For more than a decade, the FBI has been demanding extremely sensitive personal information about private citizens just by issuing letters to online companies like mine," said Nicholas Merrill, who owned the New York-based Calyx Internet Access.
"The FBI has interpreted its NSL authority to encompass the websites we read, the web searches we conduct, the people we contact, and the places we go. This kind of data reveals the most intimate details of our lives, including our political activities, religious affiliations, private relationships, and even our private thoughts and beliefs," Merrill said.
It would be nice to think they were using that information only to prevent terrorism. But with so many federal agencies serving as political operatives for President Obama it takes a heap of trust to believe that.
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