POLL: Americans Feel More Violated by Government Data Collection Than Private Data Collection

"Americans make a distinction between government collection of personal data and private companies collecting personal data because they understand that private companies are using this information to sell them things, and the government is using this information to spy on them," says Reason-Rupe polling director Emily Ekins. "And they think that government spying on them is worse."

Ekins sat down Reason TV to discuss the portion of the results from the April Reason-Rupe poll focused on private and government data collection.

While a 2013 Reason-Rupe poll found that Americans actually trust the IRS and the NSA to protect their data more than they trust companies like Facebook to do so, this round of polling dug deeper and found that people tend to believe that government agencies are more likely to violate their privacy.

Watch the video above to hear Ekins delve deeper into these results.

For full poll results, check out reason.com/poll.

Approximately 1 minute long.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Paul Detrick.

Click the link below for downloadable versions of this video.