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14 Jun, 2013

U.S. Polls Show Contradictory Results on Govt Wiretapping & Surveillance

In a development that could impact on their own credibility, opinion poll results by two of the United States’ best-known public opinion survey organisations have shown totally opposite views of the U.S. government’s controversial wiretapping and surveillance activities.

The divergence of opinion was clearly reflected in the headlines themselves. The first poll released on June 10 by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press was headlined: “Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic.” The second one by Gallup, released on 12 June, was headlined: “Americans Disapprove of Government Surveillance Programs.”

The Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 10-11, 2013, with a random sample of 1,008 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The Pew analysis was based on telephone interviews conducted June 6-9, 2013, among a national sample of 1,004 adults 18 years of age or older living in the continental United States.

Check them out for yourselves:

The full results of the Pew poll can be found here.

The Gallup poll results can be found here.