Yes, Americans Are Worried About NSA Surveillance

Americans offer very different opinions about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs depending on whether they're framed in terms of terrorism, a comparison of two national polls reveals.

A Pew/Washington Post study published Monday suggested respondents were in favor of the NSA's surveillance methods, generating headlines such as "Majority of Americans Support NSA Phone Tracking" and "Most Americans Are OK With the NSA Collecting Phone Records."

The devil is in the details, however. The Pew study asked respondents if "tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism," to which 51% said they're cool with it. Pew also found 62% of Americans believe it's "more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats even if that intrudes on personal privacy." (Emphasis mine throughout.)