{"id":19103,"date":"2013-12-09T15:58:34","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T20:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/americans-split-on-value-of-surveillance-programs\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:32","slug":"americans-split-on-value-of-surveillance-programs","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/12\/09\/americans-split-on-value-of-surveillance-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans split on value of surveillance programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With several major technology companies <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/09\/technology\/tech-giants-issue-call-for-limits-on-government-surveillance-of-users.html?pagewanted=all\">pushing back<\/a> against the U.S. government&#8217;s phone and internet surveillance measures, Americans\u00a0remain deeply divided about the programs&#8217; effectiveness and desirability.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the past several months Americans have learned much about the government&#8217;s secret surveillance programs &#8212; including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say\/2013\/10\/30\/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html\">tapping into Google and Yahoo&#8217;s data-center communications links<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show\/2013\/12\/04\/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html\">tracking the locations of hundreds of millions of cellphones<\/a> worldwide, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2013\/jun\/06\/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order\">collecting phone records on millions of calls<\/a> directly from telecom companies.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While 39% of Americans said such programs have made the country safer against terrorism, 38% said the programs have made no difference and 14% said they&#8217;ve made the country less safe, according to the Pew Research Center&#8217;s recent &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2013\/12\/03\/section-4-the-threat-of-terrorism-and-civil-liberties\/\">America&#8217;s Place in the World 2013<\/a>&#8221; report.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/12\/12-3-2013-34.png\" width=\"309\" height=\"397\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, a growing share of Americans today are worried that government anti-terrorism programs are infringing on civil liberties. In the Pew Research survey, 44% said the government&#8217;s policies have gone too far in restricting the civil liberties of average people, up from 27% in January 2010. By contrast, 39% said in the latest survey that they were mainly concerned that government policies haven&#8217;t gone far enough to protect the country, down from 58% who said that in January 2010.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of what the American public knows about the government&#8217;s elaborate surveillance programs comes from Edward Snowden&#8217;s disclosure earlier this year of classified information. Nonetheless, 55% said Snowden&#8217;s leak had harmed the public interest, while just 34% said his actions served the public interest.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four-in-ten Americans believe the government&#8217;s phone and internet surveillance programs have made the U.S. safer against terrorism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_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":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-19103","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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