Photo Credit: Getty Images
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, Americans are unwilling to share their personal emails, text messages, phone calls and records of online activity with U.S. counter-terrorism investigators, event to help stop terror plots.
This shows an increase in reluctance among Americans to share personal information since the poll last asked the question four years ago. 75% of Americans said they would not let investigators tap into their internet activity to help U.S. combat domestic terrorism, up from 67% who answered the same way in 2013.
This comes at a time when Congress is due to ask questions about surveillance when it opens debate over whether to limit the government’s ability to conduct warrantless searches of American data.
In the survey, 32% said intelligence agencies like the FBI and National Security Agency are conducting “as much surveillance as necessary” and 7% said they wanted more surveillance. Another 37% of adults said agencies are “conducting too much surveillance on American citizens,” while the remaining 24% said they do not know.
Later this year Congress must decide whether to reauthorize a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expires this December. This section allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect vast amounts of communications from foreigners, but also incidentally scoops up the communications of American citizens.
The entire poll can be found here.