Comment by Joker_vD
1 day ago
How did the police in XIX and XX century even managed to investigate the crimes without having access to the records of criminals' communications, and with way worse forensics available? No, seriously, how?
One of the things they did is they investigated metadata: you know, witnesses who saw what people walked around? Today we have way more of such data, readily available for them, plus ubiquitous CCTV and the like. That's not enough, apparently? Also, the police used to employ informants among the criminals themselves, and even implant the cover agents. Apparently, this nowadays is too expensive/bothersome, compared to running a global search for the keywords in the text messages and the transcripts of all voice messages sent in the country during the last month.
Phone wiretaps, conversation wire taps and access to letters have been normal since those communication technologies existed.
So what the heck are you on about? Content of conversations, letters and phone calls was critical to many investigations - including famous ones like WaterGate and bringing down Al Capone.
Again, if you decide to attack the government's ability to do their work, expect a pushback. This isn't hard.