USA TODAY/Gallup poll

GOVERNMENT PHONE RECORDS REACTION

First, thinking about how the government is dealing with the issue of terrorism, 

1. Do you think the Bush administration has gone too far, has been about right, or has not gone far enough in restricting people’s civil liberties in order to fight terrorism]?

	Too far	About right	Not far enough	No opinion
2006 May 12-13	41	34	19	6
2006 Jan 6-8	38	40	19	3
2003 Nov 10-12 ^	28	48	21	3
2003 Aug 25-26 ^	21	55	19	5
2002 Sep 2-4 ^	15	55	26	4
2002 Jun 21-23 ^	11	60	25	4
^ Asked of a half sample.

2. As you may know, as part of its efforts to investigate terrorism, a federal government agency obtained records from three of the largest U.S. telephone companies in order to create a database of billions of telephone numbers dialed by Americans. How closely have you been following the news about this?

3. Based on what you have heard or read about this program to collect phone records, would you say you approve or disapprove of this government program?

4. Is that mainly because you do not think the program seriously violates Americans’ civil liberties, (or is it mainly because) you think investigating terrorism is the more important goal, even if it violates some Americans’ civil liberties?

BASED ON 349 ADULTS WHO APPROVE OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAM

5. Do you think there would ever be circumstances in which it would be right for the government to create a database of telephone records, or would it not be right for the government to do this under any circumstances?

BASED ON 411 ADULTS WHO DISAPPROVE OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAM

COMBINED RESPONSES: BASED ON ALL AMERICANS

	2006 May 12-13
Approve	43
	(Does not violate civil liberties)	(12)
	(Terrorism more important, even if it violates civil liberties)	(29)
	(Unsure)	(2)
Disapprove	51
	(Yes, are circumstances in which it would be right)	(17)
	(No, are not circumstances)	(31)
	(Unsure)	(3)
No opinion	6

6. Based on what you have heard or read about this program, do you think it definitely violates the law, probably violates the law, probably does not violate the law, (or) definitely does not violate the law?

7. If you knew that the federal government had your telephone records, how concerned would you be -- very concerned, somewhat concerned, not too concerned, or not concerned at all?

8. If you knew that your telephone company had provided your telephone records to the federal government as part of this program, would you feel that your personal privacy had been violated, or not?

9. Would you favor or oppose holding immediate Congressional hearings to investigate this program?

10. How concerned are you that: 

A. Based on this program, the government would misidentify innocent Americans as possible terrorist suspects

B. Based on this program, the government would listen in on telephone conversations within the U.S. without first obtaining a warrant

C. The government is gathering other information on the general public, such as their bank records or Internet usage

Finally, thinking about the news media,

11. Do you think the news media should -- or should not -- report information it obtains about the secret methods the government is using to fight terrorism?

Results are based on telephone interviews with 809 National Adults, aged 18+, conducted May 12-13, 2006.  For results based on the total sample of National Adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

For results based on the sample of 349 adults who approve of the government program to collect telephone records, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±6 percentage points.

For results based on the sample of 411 adults who disapprove of the government program to collect telephone records, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±5 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.