A new YouGov survey explores how Americans feel about the U.S. government’s surveillance of people both within the country and abroad. Majorities of Republicans say it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to keep tabs on the online activity of politicians, journalists, international students, and government workers, among other groups. Fewer Democrats agree. The survey also found that most Americans are concerned that the U.S. government could use surveillance powers to target political opponents or suppress dissent.
84% of Americans — including 92% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats — say it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor the online activity of suspected terrorists. Around two-thirds of Americans think it’s acceptable for the government to monitor the online activity of each of the following groups: citizens in countries that are hostile to the U.S. (68%), politicians (66%), and illegal immigrants (65%).
Majorities of Republicans say it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor the online activity of international students (78%), politicians (74%), government workers (72%), political activists (72%), citizens of countries that are U.S. allies (59%), and journalists (56%).
Fewer than half of Democrats say it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor the online activity of each of these groups but one. 57% of Democrats think it’s acceptable for the government to monitor politicians' online activity.
Majorities of Americans think it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor parts of a person’s digital activity only when the person is being investigated for a crime. If someone is being investigated for a crime, majorities say it’s acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor their phone calls (65%), their location using GPS data (65%), their text messages (64%), their internet browsing history (62%), their emails (62%), and their social media messages (59%). Around half say it’s acceptable for the government to monitor their smart home devices (54%) in this situation and a similar proportion (53%) say the same about their public social media posts.
21% say it’s always acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor a person’s public social media posts. Few — between 5% and 8% — say it’s always acceptable to monitor each of the other types of digital activity asked about.
13% of Americans say it is never acceptable for the U.S. government to monitor any of the kinds of digital activity asked about.
35% of Americans think the U.S. government is currently monitoring their public social media posts. 32% think the government is monitoring U.S. citizens’ public social media posts in general, but don’t think the government is monitoring theirs personally.
31% of Americans think the U.S. government is monitoring their internet browsing history; about as many think the government is monitoring their location using GPS data (29%), their text messages (27%), and their emails (27%).
Between 27% and 31% of Americans believe that for each of the eight forms of digital activity asked about, the U.S. government is monitoring U.S. citizens’ activity while not monitoring their activity personally.
The majority (56%) of Americans say that collecting and analyzing Americans’ phone and internet data is an unnecessary intrusion into Americans’ lives, rather than something that is justified as a way to combat terrorism and crime (24% hold this view). Republicans are more likely than Democrats to see this data collection and analysis as justified (36% vs. 21%).
43% of Americans think the government goes too far in collecting Americans’ phone and internet data as a way to reduce the threat of terrorism. 6% say it does not go far enough, and 26% think it strikes the right balance.
71% of Americans are concerned that surveillance powers could be used by the U.S. government to target political opponents or suppress dissent, including 39% who are very concerned about this. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they are very concerned about this (55% vs. 23%).
Nearly half (47%) of Americans say U.S. government surveillance generally makes people less likely to express their political views online; 30% say it does not. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say it does make people less likely to express political views online (55% vs. 38%). 24% of Americans — including 33% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans — say they have chosen not to post something online or send a message to someone because they were concerned it might be monitored by the U.S. government.
43% of Americans say that compared to other countries, there is more government surveillance in the U.S. 20% say there is less surveillance in the U.S. than in other countries. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say there is more government surveillance in the U.S. than in other countries (52% vs. 34%).
78% of Americans say that in the past 25 years, the amount of government surveillance in the U.S. has increased — including 53% who say it has increased a lot.
Adults under 45 are less likely than older Americans to say the amount of government surveillance has increased since 2000 (67% vs. 87%).
35% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of how Trump is handling government surveillance; 42% disapprove. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to approve of how he is handling government surveillance (74% vs. 10%).
Even though many Americans consider government surveillance an unnecessary intrusion, 42% of Americans say they would sacrifice personal privacy if it resulted in less crime and terrorism. This marks a small increase from March 2017, when 35% said they would do so.
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See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted May 30 - June 3 2025 among 1,131 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Erik Isakson)
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