The majority of American citizens believe that they are pervasively monitored and that their data is regularly collected and used in concerning ways that they cannot control and don't fully understand, according to a new Pew Research Center study.
The report, based on a nationally representative panel of randomly selected US adults, shows that 62% of Americans feel they cannot prevent companies from collecting data on their activities, while 63% feel the same about government data collection.
Roughly eight out of every 10 Americans say they have very little or no control over how companies use their data, but are very concerned about how companies are using it. The vast majority conclude that the risks of data collection outweigh the benefits, the study found.
"Clearly this survey adds up to a portrait of distress and a willingness to hear about policy options," says Lee Rainie, director of Internet and technology research at the Pew Research Center. "The panoramic picture it paints is a society that is not happy ... they are concerned. They don't feel that they have control. They don't think the benefits outweigh the risks anymore."
The survey comes a year-and-a-half after the discovery that Cambridge Analytic used data from Facebook to create profiles on Americans to help the Trump campaign target ads against susceptible groups of Americans, and six years after Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, leaked documents on ..
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