Washington Post Poll Actual Headline: Privacy concerns rise after NSA leaks [View all]

[woo me with science]

This poll was already reported here, but with a big, blaring, cherry-picked headline about Snowden. Of course, our Constitutional protections should have nothing to do with polls, but I think, and apparently the Washington Post does too, that the revelations of a vast majority of Americans' disapproval of spying is the more important part of the poll. Therefore, on the urging of another DUer, I am reposting with the original Washington Post headline.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-privacy-concerns-rise-after-nsa-leaks/2013/07/23/3a1b64a6-f3c7-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html

Poll: Privacy concerns rise after NSA leaks
By Jon Cohen and Dan Balz

Concerns about personal privacy are on the rise, with a big majority of Americans saying the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone and Internet data intrudes on citizens’ rights without clear improvements in U.S. security, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the NSA programs are infringing on some Americans’ privacy rights, and about half see those programs as encroaching on their own privacy. Most of those who see the programs as compromising privacy say the intrusions are unjustified.

The percentage of Americans who put a higher priority on privacy protections than the investigation of terrorist threats has more than doubled in a decade and has hit the highest point in any Post-ABC News poll dating back to summer 2002. Today, about four in 10 say it is more important to protect privacy even if that limits the government’s ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

Some of the discomfort stems from doubts that the programs are making the United States safer. Only 42 percent say the programs make the country safer. More, 47 percent, see the programs as making little difference in the country’s security. And 5 percent say they actually make the nation less safe.