Amy Sancetta/AP
People are freaking out about the revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly obtaining records of Verizon phone calls, not least of all Al Gore. The former vice president lashed out at the Obama administration’s surveillance of millions of Americans’ phone records, tweeting, “In digital era privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?” In accordance with the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved an order to require that Verizon’s Business Network Services hand over call logs for millions of customers—whether they’re suspected of wrongdoing or not—“on an ongoing daily basis” for the three-month period of April 25 until July 19. Neither Verizon nor the White House have commented on the disclosed secret order.