NSA Poll Shows Americans Really Don’t Care About Being Watched

A new NSA poll revealed that most Americans really don’t seem to care they’re being watched.

In a related report from The Inquisitr, the last NSA related poll showed that many have changed their view of whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Those that do care, are usually opposed to being listened to by the government, and President Obama’s recent speech did little to nothing to impact that general opinion. But, for the most part, we simply don’t care.

For all the political drama and press coverage of the NSA debate/scandal/1984 issue, the most recent NSA poll shows that the majority of American’s just sort of tune the whole thing out. The poll also revealed half the general public didn’t hear anything about President Obama’s latest NSA speech which covered increased restrictions on the NSA. Just eight percent said they’d heard “a lot” about President Obama’s plans. Of those that heard “a little” about the speech, the majority said they thought the latest news about NSA restrictions would have little impact on their privacy or on the government’s ability to fight terrorism.

The poll did show that the public has grown more disapproving of the surveillance program and 53 percent to 40 percent, Americans disapprove of “the government’s collection of telephone and Internet data as part of anti-terrorism efforts.” This is a change from July of last year, when another poll show general public approval, but just barely.

Also shown in the poll is that Democrats are more likely to approve of the NSA’s efforts than Republicans, with Tea Partiers in particular feeling negatively towards the surveillance, and younger Americans are also more likely to disapprove.

When asked about Edward Snowden, Americans can’t really seem to make up their minds, with Americans under 30 generally approving of his actions and those over 65 responding negatively. And they don’t really care if President Obama talks about the NSA either, the survey was conducted January 15-19, but the questions about the changes to the NSA program were only asked after the President’s speech on the 17th. Opinion didn’t change one way or the other, even after the address by the president.

So do you care about the NSA poll, or the NSA surveillance program?