There is a debate going on on just how much privacy are Americans willing to give up for increased security. Well WaPo/Pew has just done a poll over the weekend with interesting results.



A large majority of Americans say the federal government should focus on investigating possible terrorist threats even if personal privacy is compromised, and most support the blanket tracking of telephone records in an effort to uncover terrorist activity, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll.

Overall, 56 percent of all Americans see the NSA’s accessing telephone call records of millions of Americans through secret court orders as “acceptable;” 41 percent call the practice “unacceptable.”

In 2006, when news broke of the NSA’s monitoring telephone and e-mail communications without court approval, there was initially a closer 51 percent to 47 percent divide on the practice.

Some of the results of the poll:Another interesting finding is that Americans are even MORE for security over privacy then they were in 2006:

In all the vast majority of Americans are willing to give up some privacy in order to prevent a terrorist attack.



62 percent of Americans now say it’s more important for the federal government to investigate terrorist threats, even if those investigations intrude on personal privacy; 34 percent say privacy should be the focus, regardless of the effect on such investigations.

Fully 45 percent of all Americans say the government should be able to go further than it is now asserting: that it should be able to monitor everyone’s online activity if this would prevent future terrorist attacks. A slender majority, 52 percent, say no such broad-based monitoring should occur.

Shockingly many Americans want the government to do MORE than it is doing in preventing terrorism even if it further encroaches on privacy.

Overall, Americans are willing to give up some privacy in these cases.