Three in five Americans say the federal government should be permitted to engage in warrantless surveillance of Internet communications, a survey released Wednesday suggests.
That includes 56 percent of respondents who said the government should have the ability to “conduct surveillance on Internet communications,” according to the survey conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In contrast, just 28 percent opposed such surveillance.
The survey failed to show much difference between political parties: 67 percent of Republicans indicated support for “surveillance of Americans’ Internet activities to watch for suspicious activity that might be connected to terrorism,” in addition to 55 percent of Democrats.
However, the results suggest it is likely that terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., have caused the numbers to change in recent months, with 57 percent of respondents expressing concerns about terrorism, compared with just 30 percent who expressed concern in 2013.
In the wake of those attacks, debate has grown over the role that government should take in monitoring digital activity. That has included whether officials should monitor activity on social media, particularly when examining applicants for visas to the United States. At least one piece of legislation, passed unanimously by the House in December, would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a written policy on the issue within 90 days.
As a result, there could be some ambiguity with respect to how respondents received questions on those topics. The survey was conducted online and by phone Dec. 10-13, little more than a week after the Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino.
The survey also indicates a deep generational divide, with millennials showing less support for digital snooping. Just 33 percent of those aged 18-29 asserted support for warrantless surveillance, compared with 63 percent of those 30 and older.
The AP-NORC study included 1,042 adults, with a 3.9 percentage point margin of error.
