Contrary to the view that people have "nothing to hide" from the government, most Americans are pro-privacy but ill-equipped to fully protect their information.

New research shows more Americans consider privacy matters to be "very important," in particularly who collects and stores their personal information. But a large majority are finding it difficult to keep the government and private companies out of their business.

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The research follows a cascade of almost two years' worth of debate over the scope, scale, and effectiveness of the US government's surveillance programs, which have ensnared millions of Americans' phone records and Internet data. As lawmakers continue to debate whether or not to curb the National Security Agency's intelligence gathering efforts, many Americans are instead taking matters into their own hands.

Of nearly 500 US adults surveyed by Pew Research, more than six out of ten respondents said there aren't adequate limits on what the government can collect on phone and Internet data. But more than nine out of ten respondents said in the months prior to being surveyed in mid-2014 — about a year after the Edward Snowden revelations first came to light — that they hadn't changed how they use the phone or the Internet to avoid being tracked or noticed.

Pew senior researcher Mary Madden said in an email to Mashable that the assumption is that most don't care about their privacy. This is what she calls the "privacy paradox," where most simply don't feel they are equipped with the technical skills to do much about it.

A large portion of those surveyed said in the wake of the leaks suggesting massive domestic government surveillance, they were more aware than ever of their personal information and where it's going.

But it hasn't stopped most people from taking a less technical approach to obscure what information they submit.

About 25 percent of respondents said they had used a temporary username or email address, while 24 percent said they had given inaccurate or misleading information to a website, rather than give out their personal information.

But the smaller proportion of those who made an active effort to obscure their phone and Internet activity adopted sophisticated tools to shield their information.

Of those surveyed, 10 percent began encrypting their phone calls and emails, while 9 percent of those surveyed used a service to anonymize Internet activity, like the Tor browser, a proxy service, or a virtual private network.

The research showed those who were more aware of the US government's surveillance programs were more likely to engage in privacy-enhancing activities than those who weren't.

Zack Whittaker is a New York-based freelancer who writes mostly about cyber security.

