Most Americans Think Courts Are Failing To Limit Government Surveillance

Nerval's Lobster writes "More than half of Americans believe that the federal courts have failed to limit the U.S. government's collection of personal information via phone records and the Internet, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. But that's nothing compared to the 70 percent who believe that the government 'uses this data for purposes other than investigating terrorism,' according to the organization's summary of its survey. Another 63 percent of respondents indicated they thought the government is collecting information about the content of their communications. The Pew Research Center surveyed 1,480 adults over the course of five days in July. 'The public's views of the government's anti-terrorism efforts are complex, and many who believe the reach of the government's data collection program is expansive still approve of the effort overall,' the organization's summary added. 'In every case, however, those who view the government's data collection as far-reaching are less likely to approve of the program than those who do not.' Some 47 percent of those surveyed approved of the government's collection of phone and Internet data, while 50 percent disapproved. Among those who thought the government is reading their personal email or listening to their phone calls, some 40 percent approved of the data collection, even as 58 percent disapproved. There's much more, including how opinions of government surveillance break across political party lines on the Pew Research Center's Website."

Comments

Survey text...

[globaljustin]

Here's the text of the 'survey' questions and results from TFA...it is instructive on many levels:

'Do courts provide adequate limits on what is collected?'
Yes=30% No=56% don't know=15%

'Is the government using this data ...'
'Only for anti-terro'r=22% 'Also for other purposes'=70% don't know=7%

'Is the government collecting ... '
'Only metadata'=18% 'Also content of phone calls and email'=63% don't know=18%

the 63% from above question were asked asked 'Have YOUR calls or emails been listened to or read?'
Yes=27% No=28% don't know 8%

'Overall view of the program'
Approve=50% Disapprove=44% don't know=6%

Pew Research Center July 17-21, 2013 Figures may not add to 100% because of rounding.

It is an astoundingly awful survey.

Just look at how they question what survey respondents thing the government is doing with the data being collected. There are two options:

1. 'Only for anti-terror' and 2. 'Also other purposes'

It is obviously worded with bias. If the respondent thinks that the government does **anything** other than one very specific thing they will have to chose #2...that's not a logical breakdown of a binary choice and it implicitly acknowledges that there are other than a binary option in the text of the question (use of the plural for 'purposes'...).

I'd wager 90% of the surveys reported on the news are of this level of scientific rigor...