{"id":15737,"date":"2013-06-07T12:28:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T17:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/balancing-act-national-security-and-civil-liberties-in-post-911-era\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:30:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:30:46","slug":"balancing-act-national-security-and-civil-liberties-in-post-911-era","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/06\/07\/balancing-act-national-security-and-civil-liberties-in-post-911-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Act: National Security and Civil Liberties in Post-9\/11 Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

The revelations that Obama administration secretly collected phone records<\/a> and accessed the internet activity of millions of Americans have raised new questions about the public\u2019s willingness to sacrifice civil liberties in the interests of national security. Since 9\/11, Americans generally have valued protection from terrorism over civil liberties, yet they also have expressed concerns over government overreach and intrusions on their personal privacy.<\/p>\n\n

Security First<\/strong>. Since shortly after 9\/11, Pew Research has asked whether people\u2019s greater concern is that anti-terror policies will go too far in restricting civil liberties, or that they won\u2019t go far enough in adequately protecting the country. The balance of opinion has consistently favored protection. Most recently, in 2010, 47% said they were more concerned that government policies \u201chave not gone far enough to adequately protect the country,\u201d while 32% said they were more concerned that \u201cthey have gone too far in restricting the average person\u2019s civil liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"FT_Civil_Liberties\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

But Fewer See Need to Sacrifice Civil Liberties. Yet fewer Americans think it will be necessary to sacrifice civil liberties to combat terrorism than did so shortly after the 9\/11 attacks. In a poll conducted in 2011<\/a>, shortly before the 10th anniversary of 9\/11, 40% said that \u201cin order to curb terrorism in this country it will be necessary for the average person to give up some civil liberties,\u201d while 54% said it would not. A decade earlier, in the aftermath of 9\/11 and before the passage of the Patriot Act, opinion was nearly the reverse (55% necessary, 35% not necessary).<\/p>\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"FT_Curb_Terrorism\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Track Terrorists \u2013 Not Me. The public has never liked the idea of the government monitoring their personal phone calls or emails. In the 9\/11 anniversary survey<\/a>, just 29% favored \u201cthe U.S. government monitoring personal telephone calls and emails\u201d in order to curb terrorism. It drew less support than the other anti-terror tactics asked about in the survey.<\/p>\n\n

Bush\u2019s Domestic Surveillance Program<\/strong>. In late 2005, news that President George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and emails<\/a> \u2013without court permission \u2013 stirred intense civil liberties concerns, especially among Democrats. From early 2006 through early 2009, public support for the program ranged from 48% to 54%. The question asked if it was generally right or wrong \u201cfor the government to monitor telephone and e-mail communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties without first obtaining permission from the courts.\u201d There were consistently wide partisan differences on views of this program: in February 2008, nearly twice as many Republicans (74%) as Democrats (39%) favored the phone and email monitoring.<\/p>\n\n

Privacy Concerns: It’s Not Just Government<\/h3>\n\n
\"FT_Privacy_Concerns\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

What is often overlooked in the debate over government surveillance of private communications is the widespread public concern over the amount of personal information businesses are collecting. In our 2012 political values survey<\/a>, 64% said they were concerned that \u201cthe government is collecting too much information about people like me.\u201d Yet 74% expressed this concern about business corporations.<\/p>\n\n

Concern that business corporations are collecting too much personal information crosses party lines. In addition, Republicans have become much more concerned about possible privacy intrusions by the government than they were during Bush\u2019s presidency (72% in 2012, 39% in 2007).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 9\/11, Americans generally have valued protection from terrorism over civil liberties, yet they also have expressed concerns over government overreach and intrusions on their personal privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"70d3dfe5-7154-400c-9acb-192898dfe0df","termId":989}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[96,74,279,110,97],"bylines":[989],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-15737","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-defense-national-security","category-george-w-bush","category-online-privacy-security","category-privacy-rights","category-terrorism","bylines-carroll-doherty","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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