Republicans Increasingly Worried About How Government Uses Their Data

A growing number of Republicans in America are worried about how the government uses their data, according to a new Pew Research survey.

Americans in general were significantly more worried about how the government uses their data since 2019, according to the Pew survey. While 64 percent said they worried about the government's data use three years ago, 71 percent said the same in 2023.

Republicans led this group, with 77 percent saying they're worried compared to 63 percent four years ago while Democrats' level of concern stayed the same.

While some might doubt the extent of how much we should be worried, Jen Caltrider, Mozilla's *Privacy Not Included Program Director in charge of the data privacy rating Creep-o-Meter, said the concerns are warranted.

"People are right to be worried about what companies and governments do with our personal information," Caltrider told Newsweek.

The public, whether they lean Republican or Democrat, is generally confused about what companies are doing with their data, too. The survey found 67 percent of Americans understand little to nothing about what companies do with their data, which is an uptick from 59 percent in 2019.

While phones and computers are a part of our everyday lives, more than 70 percent majority of Americans feel they have no control over what companies or the government do with their data. Caltrider said they might be right to feel this way.

Companies collect an ever-increasing amount of information about you from your car, phone, apps and everything you buy online and in stores, she said.

"This data then goes into a black box where the algorithms the companies use, algorithms we typically have no idea how they work or have much control over, create inferences about who we are, what we like, and how to get us to do things like buy more stuff or support a political candidate," Caltrider said. "That data is then often put up for sale to just about anyone."

Tech collects our personal information

While 78 percent of Americans trust themselves to make their own decisions around their personal information, a majority also feel that it's unlikely to make much of a difference.

Privacy policies generally outline how users' data is being used, but more than half of consumers bypass these guidelines altogether before hitting agree.

"This is scary, especially as the technology that collects our personal information is everywhere now, and gets better each day at tracking our movements, sensing our emotions, and predicting our behaviors," Caltrider said.

There's an especially high level of cynicism noted toward social media companies and their CEOs as well. Roughly 77 percent of Americans said they had little or no trust in the leaders of social media companies to admit mistakes or take responsibility for data misuse.

While Republicans' worries over data privacy surpassed Democrats', Caltrider said all Americans should be concerned over reports that the government buys data from data brokers to get around search warrants.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that warrants are required to gain access to cell phone location data, even if it's held by a third party. However, the government is also able to use data brokers to buy "its way around the core protections of the Fourth Amendment," a 2022 ACLU report found.

"Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between are right to be concerned about our current declining state of privacy," Caltrider said. "It's a perfect time for all sides to come together and loudly call for a strong, consumer-focused federal privacy law to protect us from the privacy invasions we can see, and all the ones we can't."

Why Republicans might show more outward concern around the government's use of data could come down to worries over officials using your data to advance a certain agenda, said Ari Lightman, professor of digital media at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College.

"I think it has to do with where they lie politically," Lightman told Newsweek. "I think everyone is concerned around government and digital platform overreach...but I think it is used to advance specific agendas based on partisan issues."

Artificial intelligence is also a growing concern among Americans, of which 70 percent who know about the technology said they have little to no trust in companies to use it responsibly in their products, the Pew survey noted.

Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris called for action to protect the public and democracy from the potential risks of AI.

Harris said the technology could cause cyberattacks "at a scale beyond anything we have seen before." She also warned against AI-formulated bioweapons that could endanger millions of lives.

"These threats are often referred to as the 'existential threats of AI', because they could endanger the very existence of humanity," Harris said.