A new poll shows a willingness by 4 out of 10 Americans to give up some civil liberties to fight terrorism. But they don't want the government eavesdropping on their cell phone calls or emails.
The
CNN/Time/ORC International Poll shows that concerns about terrorism have increased since the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings. Forty percent say they are worried someone in their family might become a terrorism victim. That number is up 6 percentage points from a CNN poll conducted on the 10th anniversay of 9/11.
When it comes to security versus personal freedoms, 81 percent favor expanding use of cameras on streets and in public places. That's up 20 points since 2001. Seventy-nine percent favor using facial-recognition technology to search for suspected terrorists at public events.
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But only 30 percent want the government to increase monitoring of cell phone and email conversations to prevent terrorist acts. Slightly more than half, 55 percent, favor law enforcement monitoring of online chat rooms and other forums.
Americans are still mostly refusing to respond to terrorism by changing their routines. Seventy percent said they would not be any less likely to attend large public events in order to reduce their chances of being a victim of a terrorist attack.
The poll was conducted April 30 and has a sampling error of +/-4 percentage points.
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