Most Americans unwilling to give up
privacy to thwart attacks: Reuters/Ipsos poll
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[April 05, 2017]
By Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of
Americans are unwilling to share their personal emails, text messages,
phone calls and records of online activity with U.S. counter-terrorism
investigators - even to help foil terror plots, according to a
Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.
The poll showed Americans were more reluctant to share personal
information than when the poll last asked the question four years ago.
For instance, 75 percent of adults said they would not let investigators
tap into their Internet activity to help the U.S. combat domestic
terrorism. That's up from 67 percent who answered the same way in June
2013.
But Americans were more evenly divided when asked whether the government
is conducting too much surveillance, showing that while they are deeply
concerned about their own privacy there remains a pool of support for
U.S. spying programs that can sweep up personal information.
Congress is due to address questions about surveillance later this year
when it opens debate over whether to limit the government's ability to
conduct warrantless searches of American data.
According to the March 11-20 survey, 32 percent said intelligence
agencies such as the FBI and National Security Agency are conducting "as
much surveillance as is necessary" and 7 percent said they wanted more
surveillance. Another 37 percent of adults said agencies are "conducting
too much surveillance on American citizens." The remaining 24 percent
said they did not know.
Later this year Congress must decide whether to reauthorize a key
section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expires on
December 31. The section allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect
vast amounts of communications from foreigners, but often incidentally
scoops up the communications of Americans.
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A businessman sits on a bench looking over his mobile phone in
downtown San Francisco, California February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Mike
Blake
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have expressed interest in
limiting warrantless searches of such U.S. data, but a White House
official told Reuters last month the Trump administration did not
support changes.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50
states. It surveyed 3,307 people, including 1,209 Republicans and
1,355 Democrats. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of
accuracy, of 2 percentage points for the entire group and 3
percentage points each for the Republicans and Democrats.
The entire poll can be found here. [http://tmsnrt.rs/2mWiLZm]
(Additional reporting by Chris Kahn in New York; editing by Paul
Thomasch)
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