Poll shows Americans are concerned about privacy issues
A recently released poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center indicates that Americans are concerned about privacy infringement. In fact, less than half (47%) give the government good marks on protecting the
right to privacy, and 40% believe the government is doing a poor job protecting that right.
37% of those surveyed said they are extremely or very concerned that using social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter will cause them to lose some of their privacy. Screen shot of Facebook login page
The public does however gives Washington positive reviews on protecting other constitutional rights, including the right to vote (76% “good job”), freedom of speech (70%), the right of everyone to equal protection under the law (57%), and the right to keep and bear arms (53%).
The poll shows that Democrats think that the government does a pretty good job at protecting privacy (58%), while Republicans and Independents view the government much less favorably in this area at 37% and 35% respectively.
New technologies are a concern for about one-third of Americans when asked about Facebook and other social networking sites (37%), Police departments using unmanned drones for surveillance (35%) and electronic banking at 30%.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,006 adults nationwide. The survey was conducted from August 16-20, 2012 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
