That's an awful lot of information for them to record...several thousand gigabytes of information from each person, multiplied by 200 million people actively engaged in Internet use...WHEW! That amount of information would be nigh IMPOSSIBLE to sift through...
They’ve been sorting all electronic communications with a massive list of keywords for AT LEAST 37 years that I know of.
Yes, they’ve had acres of computers and massive storage handling such just as long—in several locations globally—including Australia, Belgium . . . . etc.
They sift it. The NSA listens to cellphones all over the world.
Being overly simple how do you think they know X number of households watched the super bowl or any other show? A door to door survey?
Al new generation cell phones have gps capability and as long as the phone is on they can find you. OnStar is another one.