In the “post-Snowden era”, few Americans believe they have any privacy left.
Most Americans are worried about the government spying on them, and feel they’ve lost control of their data to advertising companies, the latest Pew poll finds.
An overwhelming majority–80 percent—“agree” or “strongly” agree that Americans should be concerned by the government monitoring their data and communications. Only 18 percent disagreed.
Six in ten adults said they “would like to do more” to ensure their online privacy.
81 percent feel “not very” to “not at all secure” when sharing information on social media. Companies like Facebook have come under fire for some of their privacy practices in the past, and Facebook recently revealed that government requests for their information have spiked dramatically since last year.
Only 24 percent of people think it’s easy to be anonymous online. And most don’t seem think there’s a benefit: a minority, 36 percent, said that society is better off if people know someone is watching their online activity.
High levels of distrust in the government may explain some of this: only 16 percent currently say they trust the government to do the right thing “most of the time,” and a paltry 2 percent say “just about always.” The remaining percentages fall between “some of the time” and “never.”
Yet at the same time, they may distrust ad companies even more than government. 64 percent said that the government should do more to regulate advertisers. 91 percent of adults agreed that “consumers have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.”
