Another thing: there is no such thing as a non-traceable phone. A mobil phone is only not traceable if you have disconnected the battery. But if it turned on (and perhaps even if its on standby) its connected to the nearest phone grid transmitter. That doesn't reveal a adress or so, but shows in what transmitter cell the phone is. These calls are about 2 miles in diameter, in cities often less than that. So thats always been possible.
But the high art is, to actually listen in on calls, read emails and text messages, and facebook and twitter communication and so on. Not the so called "data", like log in locations and phone numbers being used and stuff like that. This is already forcefully collected by the network providers by using the patriot act laws. And the NSA has probably listened in on calls for some time - possibly ALL calls, inside and outside the US. Based on the "Fuck the constitution" laws, that they used ever since.