Americans may be so split that we can’t even agree on which tech billionaires to hate, but a new survey finds extraordinary, bipartisan unease over how much data government agencies have about us and how that data might be abused.
The topline number in a report released Tuesday by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is that 39% of respondents are “very concerned” and 35% are “somewhat concerned” about the privacy and security risks of government collection and storage of their data.
Many polls show dramatic splits in sentiment based on political leanings, but not this one. A full 77% of Democrats, 75% of Republicans, and 69% of independent voters say they are at least somewhat concerned, although CDT’s 14-page report doesn’t include a partisan breakdown for the “very concerned” respondents.
This survey by the nonprofit think tank funded mostly by foundations and then corporate and individual donors, also found little variation among other demographic dividing lines. “Those concern levels are high and consistent across demographic groups,” Elizabeth Laird, director of CDT’s equity in civic tech program, said on a press call before the survey’s release.
Black respondents are barely more likely than White or Hispanic respondents to feel concerned: 77%, compared with 75% and 69%. The numbers for men and women are 75% and 74%, although only 69% LGBTQ+ respondents pronounce themselves concerned compared with 75% of those who identified otherwise or did not share a gender or sexual identity.
(Credit: CDT)
Older people were, however, more likely than younger folks to feel nervous about government data collection, with 84% of Baby Boomer respondents 62 or years older putting themselves in that anxiety closet versus 76% of Gen Xers (aged 46 to 61), 70% of millennials (30 to 45), and 65% of Gen Z (18 to 29).
Asked about what scenarios concerned them, 83% of respondents cited “a data breach of a government database allowing for the misuse of personal data”; 78% “personal data being shared, without their permission, with local, state, or federal government entities that deliver public services”; 68%, “personal data being shared with local, state, or federal law enforcement”; 67%, “Personal data being shared with the Department of Homeland Security.”
About 73% agree that in the absence of privacy laws or policies, “government agencies would use personal data to track and monitor anyone they want to,” and 69% concur with the idea that “government agencies already have access to large amounts of my personal information, and there is little that I can do about it.”
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The heads of those government agencies should not have to wonder why people feel so nervous about this now. DOGE staffers showed a careless regard for security as they tried to pry open various government databases, including sensitive Treasury Department records, to find suspected fraud.
Department of Homeland Security agents, meanwhile, have put facial-recognition software to widespread use against both suspected unauthorized migrants as well as protesters, some of whom have since reported losing their Global Entry trusted-traveler memberships.
“The federal government has been trending towards collecting more information, consolidating it, and that information can be quite sensitive,” said CDT’s Laird.
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Just walking around downtown Washington offers visual reminders of how Trump treats individual agencies as agents of his will: The Department of Justice’s building now features a giant banner with the president’s face.
Even before Trump’s return to office, however, law enforcement and national security agencies were already buying bulk records from data brokers instead of going to court to obtain the same information. CDT called that out in a 2021 report, but this study did not ask about people’s concerns over this widespread workaround. “I would add that on my wish list for the next round,” Laird said on the call.
The survey did find widespread support for reining in government data collection and use, with 79% of respondents agreeing that “agencies should be required to inform individuals about the personal data that they hold, the reasons they collect the data, and how it is used” and that “Congress should use its authority to hold government agencies accountable when they ignore privacy laws that protect personal data.”
But Congress has spent years failing to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation or even narrower measures clamping down on bulk purchases of data that prosecutors would normally need to obtain via a warrant. And this Congress in particular has shown itself so dismally unproductive in tech policy that any meaningful change will have to wait until 2027 at the earliest.
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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.
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