Public Opinions Regarding Government Surveillance Rights in the United States

ABSTRACT This study examines public opinion regarding government surveillance in the United States, focusing on three types of government surveillance policy: video surveillance in public areas, monitoring of emails and other information exchanged on the Internet, and mass information collection on the population without consent. The study employs a multilevel approach: First, opposition to each surveillance activity is compared among 34 OECD member countries to provide context for discussing public opinion in the United States. Then the analysis focuses solely on a nationally representative sample to examine whether attitudes vary by online and offline political activism, trust in government, perceived corruption, perceived terrorism threat, and a preference for security over freedom. While trust and perceived corruption and threat are found to have consistent and significant effects in all domains, the influence of political activity varied by domain of surveillance rights, as well as type of political activity. Notably, only online political activity was a significant predictor of opposition to the government's right to monitor exchanges on the Internet, while both online and offline political activity contributed to the disapproval of mass information collection. Practical and theoretical implications for research and policy are discussed.