Polls Find Public Wariness, Ignorance, of NSA Surveillance

Most people think its bigger than officials admit

Based on a bevy of polls conducted in the wake of revelations that the NSA surveiled millions of ordinary Americans' private communications, many have prematurely concluded public support or opposition to the government surveillance program (for instance here, here, and here). These polls are insufficient gauges for what Americans actually think for several reasons. First, slight wording differences result in majority support or opposition of the program as described in each particular survey question, as I've written about here. Second, the full extent of these government programs is not yet fully known; fully 76 percent of Americans think that we'll find out the programs are "even bigger and more widespread than we know even now." Third, most Americans are not even fully aware of the revealed information and its implications—according to a Time poll only 24 percent of Americans say they've been closely following the reports of the large-scale government surveillance program called PRISM.