Half of Americans have not changed their online behaviours since details of government-led mass surveillance have been published as they believe it is difficult to find ways to make their browsing more private, a new report has said.

The report from the Pew Research Center indicates that many Americans are not aware of the ways that they can increase their privacy while online.

“One potential reason some have not changed their behaviors is that 54% believe it would be “somewhat” or “very” difficult to find tools and strategies that would help them be more private online and in using their cell phones,” the report says.

“Still, notable numbers of citizens say they have not adopted or even considered some of the more commonly available tools that can be used to make online communications and activities more private.”

Although some people have made changes to their online behaviour since the mass surveillance program details were made public by Edward Snowden, many are still unaware of how they can change their behaviour.

More than half the people in the Pew survey said they had not considered using a search engine that doesn’t keep track of the user’s search history. Some 31% of people said they do not know about encryption programs such as PGP, while 46% said they have not adopted or considered using them.

Similarly 40% said they had not adopted or considered using anonymity software such as Tor and 39% did not know what it was.

The report goes on to say that the numbers may be even higher than those outline above.

“These figures may in fact understate the lack of awareness among Americans because noteworthy numbers of respondents answered “not applicable to me” on these questions even though virtually all of them are internet and cell phone users,” the report continued.

It was found that older Americans who have a high school diploma or less are more likely to say they have not heard of the privacy tools, when compared to those who are younger or more educated.

But the researchers found that heavy and light technology users are both equally likely to say that they don’t know of the privacy tools.

However, one in every three people has taken steps to hide or shield their information from the US government since details of the NSA’s mass surveillance schemes were published.

Changing privacy settings on social media, curtailing social media use, uninstalling apps and avoiding certain phrases in online communications are some of the changes in behaviour made by those who are aware of surveillance programs, the report said.

Six percent of those surveyed said they had heard “nothing at all” about the surveillance programs.

Pew’s report was published almost two years after the first disclosures of the surveillance programs by Edward Snowden.

Earlier this week Snowden repeated his warning that unless these surveillance measures are limited countries of all sizes could have mass surveillance operations in place. He also said that there was potential for “companies and criminals” to be conducting surveillance.

The Pew research was based on the responses of 475 individuals who answered questions on the topic of their online behaviour.