If we as a people have “consented” to this activity then why is it a crime for someone to disclose to the public the government behavior they have supposedly consented to?
These aren't recordings of the content of the messages, but rather records that identify which NUMBER activated the system, asked for another NUMBER, and then made a connection with that NUMBER, or with any cluster of numbers.
These laws were enacted back in the days when AT&T had a near monopoly on phone service and people were concerned that unless this information were recorded ~ and then provided to customers that AT&T could steal them blind ~ all of which was true anyway. Phone service was expensive, but popular. Today it's cheap, but still popular. Actually, it costs more than ever, but it's used more as well!
The simple solution to eliminating any possible domestic misuse of these records is to RESCIND the laws that require that they be maintained. That's not a small problem ~ after all there are federal laws and state laws. Municipal authorities that charge taxes on a per call basis also have an interest. You'd be up against every greedy politician in the country who thinks taxes are his or her inherent right.
Other uses ~ e.g. to find criminals, control telephone advertisers, regulate email spammers ~ and so forth ~ you'd have to give all that stuff up as well once these primary records were no longer created.
To a degree I"m not sure phone companies would even survive without the switching data ~ fur shur every call would need to be treated as LONG DISTANCE, and any state or federal price regulation scheme would need to be abandoned.
Still, a fixed price for simply having telecommunications service ought to be sufficient to keep a major system up and running. Assign that price to each individual in the service area (speaking of how carriers would assign costs) and allow entry by any device through any channel for known customers. That'd require hard encryption for making calls or other connections, but after that broadcasts could be made in the open like we have now.
That'd protect your privacy, as well as the privacy of the merchant class and others who find a need to contact you.
Note that the rate sysem to pay for this is simple beyond the imaginations of he Fair Tax crowd ~ so what's not to like eh?