Comment by dylan604

I don't know what you think you are proving here. They did not view the contents of the message. An MITM "attack" would allow them decrypt the content of the message. This is just metadata being used. It's no different than all of the other metadata uses that the TLAs have been using. We've known for a long time (for me since Snowden was the first time I ever even considered it) that metadata can tell us a whole hell of lot about people that is just as much evidence that the actual contents of the message are irrelevant. With metadata alone, you can build up an entire network of people to investigate. You can do that investigation without ever decrypting anything. It's no different from the police following a suspect to see who they meet, and then following that person, and continuing until they find the bigBoss. They can then roll up the entire network in one fail swoop if they so choose.