Wednesday, June 12, 2013

No, Most Americans Don't Like Having Their Privacy Invaded

Every pollster knows that to get the right answers one must ask the right questions. To hear the folks who ran the Washington Post /Pew Research poll tell it Americans are really down with the idea of the government invading their privacy in the name of national security. Yup, PRISM is the greatest thing since canned beer. When asked the question,
"As you may know, it has been reported that the National Security Agency has been getting secret court orders to track telephone call records of millions of Americans in an effort to investigate terrorism. Would you consider this access to telephone call records an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism?"
Notice the question the does not inform the respondents that the records are of ordinary Americans, substituting millions and pushing the respondents to to respond in favor of more governmental snooping. In the Post/Pew poll 56% were not worried about their loss of privacy.
The CBS poll asked the proper question;
In order to reduce the threat of terrorism, do you approve or disapprove of federal government agencies collecting phone records of ordinary Americans?
Surprise! 58% disapprove of the federal government collecting phone records of ordinary Americans. What a difference a word can make!

and

 The CBS poll is consistent with an earlier Rasmussen poll that found 59% of respondents opposing the government's collecting phone logs.

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