Also, you are ignoring all other reports that the NSA is storing CONTENT of every means of communication.
Just this week, it was revealed that they store hundreds of millions of text messages:
* http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-mi...
They also store every single phone call made in the US:
* http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec1...
* http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589495-38/nsa-spying-fla...
Oh, and thinking about using Skype? Also tapped:
* http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/nsa-taps-skype-ch...
The "spirit" of the law is to keep government agents from trespassing on your property looking for contraband. The "right of privacy" wasn't conjured out of thin air by the Supreme Court until the 1960's. Collecting information under the Third Party Doctrine violates neither the letter nor the spirit of the 4th amendment.
> Just this week, it was revealed that they store hundreds of millions of text messages:
Are they the text messages of Americans?
> They also store every single phone call made in the US:
If they store every phone call made in the U.S. that would definitely be illegal. But the evidence that they do this is much flimsier than for the other things we know they do.
As for the "intent of fundamental laws" the intent of the 4th amendment was to prevent customs officials from trespassing on private property. The founders never talked about the "right of privacy" as a coherent concept. The "right to privacy" was conjured from the "penumbras" of the Constitution (i.e. thin air) just a couple of decades before Smith v. Maryland was decided.