More than three-quarters of Americans accept to share personal data across government agencies

According to a new survey sponsored by YouGov and Unisys, most US citizens recognize and accept the sharing of their personal data between state and local government agencies, even if it involves personal information such as criminal records and income. A survey of nearly 2,000 people in eight states found that more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents believe their data has been shared among government agencies.

“NSA Monitored Location”by universalist is licensed under CC BY 2.0

More importantly, most citizens believe that government agencies are sharing sensitive information, including ” their social security numbers (60% stating they believe this data is being shared), employment status (56%), paid income tax (51%) and any criminal history (64%).”

However, many respondents expressed concern about how these organizations protect their data and privacy. The most common concerns are how the government uses data (69%), privacy violations (68%), lack of security vulnerability protection, accidental disclosure (66%), external cyber attacks (65%), and access to their data by unauthorized government officials (63%). More than half (53%) of the citizens who expressed concern about at least one type of data sharing expressed distrust of the government.

They also believe that government agencies holding this information need to take more steps to give them confidence that their data and privacy are protected. Organizations can address these issues with data protection solutions that use technologies such as micro-segmentation, encryption, and dynamic isolation to limit access to this data by unauthorized people.

Source: PRNewswire