12 years after 9/11, doubts grow over government surveillance

12 years after 9/11, doubts grow over government surveillance: The American public is still anxious about terrorism on the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and about 6 in 10 Americans believe it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice rights to confront terrorism.

But suspicions about the government’s promises to protect civil liberties have deepened since 2011.

After disclosures about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance programs, a majority of Americans believe the government is doing a poor job of protecting privacy rights, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Only 53 percent now say the government does a good job of ensuring freedoms, compared with 60 percent two years ago. Nearly 60 percent oppose the NSA’s collection of data on telephone and Internet usage.

A similar majority opposes the legal process supervised by a secret federal court that oversees the government’s classified surveillance.