but, it’s just metadata, right?

NSA’s Verizon Spying Order Specifically Targeted Americans, Not Foreigners
the latest revelation of the extent of the NSA’s surveillance shows that it has focused specifically on Americans, to the degree that its data collection has in at least one major spying incident explicitly excluded those outside the United States. 

US ‘orders Verizon to disclose millions of phone records’
The US National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans, according to the Guardian newspaper. The British paper published what it said was a secret court order directing the Verizon company to hand over electronic data on all its customers on an “ongoing daily basis”. Civil liberties groups said the details of the report were “stunning”.