Half of Americans Supposedly Approve of NSA Surveillance Program

Photo Credit: APBy James Arkin. Most Americans are suspicious they aren’t being told the full truth about the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, but half still approve of the program overall, according to a new poll released Friday.

Fifty percent of Americans approve of the NSA program while 44 percent disapprove, according to the poll from the PEW Research Center.

Despite the overall approval, 70 percent of those surveyed said they thought the government uses this data for purposes other than investigating terrorism. Similarly, 63 percent of those surveyed said they believed the government was collecting information about content of communications, not just metadata. Of that group, 27 percent said they thought the government had listened to their calls or read their emails, while 28 percent did not. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Michael Reynolds/EPANSA surveillance critics to testify before Congress

By Paul Lewis. Congress will hear testimony from critics of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices for the first time since the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s explosive leaks were made public.

Democrat congressman Alan Grayson, who is leading a bipartisan group of congressman organising the hearing, told the Guardian it would serve to counter the “constant misleading information” from the intelligence community.

The hearing, which will take place on Wednesday, comes amid evidence of a growing congressional rebellion NSA data collection methods.

On Wednesday, a vote in the House of Representatives that would have tried to curb the NSA’s practice of mass collection of phone records of millions of Americans was narrowly defeated.

However, it exposed broader-than-expected concern among members of Congress over US surveillance tactics. A majority of Democrat members voted in support of the amendment. Read more from this story HERE.