After Edward Snowden revelations, 65% of adults say that limits on the data that government agencies are allowed to collect about people aren’t adequate. According to a recent study, only 6% of American adults are “very confident”, while 1/4 of respondents are “somewhat confident” about data that government agencies could keep.

About 2 years ago, Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, revealed that the United States and the United Kingdom’s security forces had access to and collected people’s private phone call and online information without knowledge or permission of its owners, which caused a backlash from the tech and security industries.

The recent survey revealed that the US citizens show a lack of trust in Internet firms, with over 3/4 of adults saying they were “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that details of their activity online would remain private. The results of the survey showed that social media services, search engines and video websites were equally distrusted – about 2/3 of adults didn’t believe their data would remain private and secure with them.

People are also concerned over who could access their private information and who was watching them. The statistics show that 93% of adults said being in control of who could get data about them was very important, while 90% considered controlling which data was collected no less important either.

At the same time, about 88% of respondents considered it important not being watched or listened in without their permission. 1/2 of those surveyed claimed that Internet advertisers should not be able to track their activities online. Only 2/5 of adults said that search engines and social media platforms should not track their activity, and approximately the same number of people said the same of video sites.

Despite these fears, few American Internet users are taking extra steps to protect themselves from government surveillance. Only 1 of 10 adults say they encrypted their digital communication, and even less used such instruments as Tor to protect their online activity.

At the same time, more people have taken simpler steps – for example, 3/5 cleared browser cookies or history, while 57% refused to hand over data to companies or organizations when it wasn’t relevant – 24% simply provided fake data.