When It Comes to NSA, Voters Put Preventing Terrorism Ahead of Privacy
A bill that would have put heavier restrictions on the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records was blocked in the U.S. Senate Tuesday. While voters still aren’t fans of the NSA’s activities, they seem to agree with the bill’s opponents that preventing a terrorist attack is more important than protecting Americans’ privacy right now.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters believe protecting the country from a possible terrorist attack is more important than protecting the privacy of most Americans. Thirty-three percent (33%) take the opposite view, while 10% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on November 18-19, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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