Phone conversation content and metadata question

Factual Questions
1

I am looking for a factual answer here, not wild guesses. I tried to find the answer, but I couldn’t find it. This is a purely hypothetical situation and has nothing to do with Mike Lindell or anyone else.

Let’s say the FBI wants to know about a domestic phone conversation I had with someone a year ago regarding a crime they are investigating. Assuming they have a subpoena, I think they can collect my phone or go to my carrier and figure out what number I called and when. However, that’s just the metadata. Can they listen to the conversation I had with that person? I don’t think that’s stored on my phone. I didn’t think my service provider was recording everyone’s phone calls and storing them, so unless the FBI had a tap on my phone and was recording the conversation when it occurred, there is no way for them to know precisely what was said during my phone conversation unless one of us told them. Is that correct?

2

Yes. The telcos don’t record the content of calls because it is illegal under federal law:

Secretly recording two other people, without taking part in the conversation, and without consent from at least one of them, is considered a felony under the federal wiretap laws.

Even if it weren’t illegal, or if the telcos didn’t mind flauting the law, the resources needed to record the content of all calls would be vastly greater than the metadata they do record. To say nothing of the fact that before the digital age the resources needed would have made it virtually impossible. In the digital age it is at least conceivable, but probably still impossible for all practical purposes.

And if they were doing it routinely, there would have been some news story or other sign of that fact before now.

So, illegal, expensive, and impossible to conceal (on a large scale). You’re safe.