Surveillance privacy statistics describe how people perceive monitoring, how much control they believe they have over collected data, and how institutions use facial-recognition systems. The figures below are primarily U.S. survey estimates from 2014, 2019 and May 15–21, 2023, plus federal-agency counts covering 2020 and related use windows.
Key Surveillance Privacy Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- In a 2014 U.S. survey reported in 2015, 81% of adults said surveillance cameras were hard to avoid in public.
- In November 1–7, 2021, 60% of U.S. adults said people should assume they are monitored in public spaces.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 71% of U.S. adults were worried about how the government uses people’s data.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 79% of U.S. adults said they had little or no control over government-collected data.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 73% said they had little or no control over data collected by companies.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 67% said they understood little or nothing about what companies do with their personal data.
- In June 3–17, 2019, 72% of U.S. adults believed companies tracked all or most of their online and cellphone activity.
- In June 3–17, 2019, 75% of U.S. adults supported more government regulation of companies’ use of personal information.
- In May 15–21, 2023, about 68% of U.S. adults said they had declined or turned off cookies or other website tracking.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 49% of U.S. adults said they had stopped using a device, website or app because of data-use concerns.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 44% of U.S. adults said they had used a privacy-oriented browser or search engine.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 36% of U.S. adults said they had used encrypted messaging.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 21% of U.S. adults answered at least four of five privacy and cybersecurity knowledge questions correctly.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 56% of U.S. adults frequently clicked agree to privacy policies without reading them.
- In May 15–21, 2023, 61% of U.S. adults said privacy policies were not too or not at all effective at explaining company data use.
- In fiscal year 2020, 18 of 24 surveyed federal CFO Act agencies reported using facial recognition.
- Between January 2015 and March 2020, 20 of 42 federal law-enforcement agencies reported owning or using facial-recognition systems.
Contents
- Public surveillance privacy perceptions
- Government and company tracking data
- Data control, regulation and privacy behavior
- Privacy-policy knowledge and confidence
- Federal facial-recognition surveillance
- How to interpret surveillance privacy statistics
Public Surveillance Privacy Perceptions
The earliest figures here measure perceived visibility rather than the number of cameras installed. Pew Research Center’s 2014 U.S. survey, reported in Americans’ Attitudes About Privacy, Security and Surveillance in 2015, found that 81% of adults agreed surveillance cameras were hard to avoid in public: 36% strongly agreed and 45% agreed.
Age differences were substantial in that same survey:
- 90% of adults age 65 and older said surveillance cameras were hard to avoid in public.
- 76% of adults ages 18–29 said cameras were hard to avoid.
- 80% of adults ages 30–49 said cameras were hard to avoid.
These are perceptions of camera visibility, not an inventory of public or private equipment, and the survey is older than the other public-attitude figures. Pew Research Center, Americans’ Attitudes About Privacy, Security and Surveillance.
A later Pew survey conducted November 1–7, 2021 asked about monitoring more directly. 60% of U.S. adults said people should assume they are being monitored in public spaces, while 39% said people should have a right to privacy there.
Views differed according to opinions about widespread police facial recognition. Among adults who considered it a good idea, 71% said people should assume they are monitored in public; the figure was 46% among those who considered it a bad idea and 57% among those who were unsure.
These are subgroup associations, not causal effects. Pew Research Center, How Americans View Data Privacy: Tech Companies, AI, Regulation, Passwords and Policies.
Government and Company Tracking Privacy Data
Recent survey results show broad concern about both government and company data use. In May 15–21, 2023, 71% of U.S. adults said they were worried about how the government uses people’s data, up from 64% in 2019; among Republicans, concern rose from 63% in 2019 to 77% in 2023.
The same 2023 Pew study found that 67% said they understood little or nothing about what companies do with their personal data, up from 59% in the prior Pew wave. Perceived control was also limited: 79% said they had little or no control over government-collected data, and 73% said the same about company-collected data.
| Concern or perception | Result | Measurement period and population |
|---|---|---|
| Concern about government data use | 71% | May 15–21, 2023, U.S. adults |
| Little or no control over government data | 79% | May 15–21, 2023, U.S. adults |
| Little or no control over company data | 73% | May 15–21, 2023, U.S. adults |
| Concern about company data use | 79% | May 15–21, 2023, U.S. adults |
For company data use specifically, 79% of Americans were at least somewhat concerned in May 15–21, 2023: 35% were very concerned and 46% somewhat concerned. Another 19% were not too or not at all concerned. Pew Research Center, How Americans View Data Privacy: Tech Companies, AI, Regulation, Passwords and Policies.
Older Pew results help define what people think tracking looks like. In June 3–17, 2019, 72% believed companies tracked all or most of what they did online and on their cellphone, compared with 47% who believed the government did so.
For offline activity, 31% believed companies tracked all or most of where they went and whom they talked to, while 24% said the same about government tracking.
Regulatory demand was also high: 75% of U.S. adults said there should be more government regulation of what companies can do with customers’ personal information. In an earlier 2013 Pew phone survey, 68% of internet users said current laws were not good enough to protect online privacy; that population and survey mode differ from the 2019 results. Pew Research Center, Americans’ views about privacy, surveillance and data-sharing.
Surveillance Privacy Data on Control and Protective Behavior
Perceived control was similarly low in the June 3–17, 2019 Pew survey: 84% said they had very little or no control over government-collected data, and 81% said they had very little or no control over company-collected data. Only 4% reported a great deal of control over government data and 3% reported a great deal of control over company data.
A separate 2019 measure found that 70% believed their personal information was less secure than five years earlier, while 6% said it was more secure and 24% said it was about the same. This measures perceived change in security, not the incidence of breaches.
In May 15–21, 2023, respondents reported several privacy-protective actions:
- 68% of social-media users said they had changed social-media privacy settings.
- About 68% of U.S. adults said they had declined or turned off cookies or other website tracking.
- 49% of U.S. adults said they had stopped using a device, website or app because of concern about personal-data use.
- 44% of U.S. adults said they had used a browser or search engine that does not keep track of what they do.
- 36% of U.S. adults said they had used an encrypted messaging app or service.
The figures are self-reported, and the social-media-setting result applies to social-media users rather than all adults. Pew Research Center, How Americans protect their online data and privacy.
Age and education were associated with several behaviors. Among social-media users, 76% of those under 50 had changed privacy settings, compared with 62% of users ages 50–64 and 50% of users 65 and older; among adults, privacy-oriented browser use was 49% under age 50 versus 38% age 50 and older, while encrypted-messaging use was 42% versus 30%.
Education differences also appeared: 73% of adult social-media users with some college experience or more had changed privacy settings, compared with 60% with a high-school diploma or less. Website-tracking features had been turned off by 72% of adults who had attended college, compared with 56% who had not. Pew Research Center, How Americans protect their online data and privacy.
Privacy Policies, Knowledge and Technology Confidence
Privacy policies often fail to function as practical explanations for users. In May 15–21, 2023, 56% of U.S. adults said they frequently clicked agree without reading privacy policies, 22% did so sometimes, and 18% rarely or never did so; the categories do not sum to 100 because of omitted responses or rounding.
The age gap was 72% among adults under 30 versus 39% among adults 65 and older. By education, 68% of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree frequently agreed without reading, compared with 58% of those with some college experience.
Perceived usefulness was limited: 61% said privacy policies were not too or not at all effective at explaining company data use, compared with 27% who said somewhat effective and 7% who said very or extremely effective. In addition, 69% viewed policies as something to get past, while 27% viewed them as a meaningful part of deciding whether to use a product or service.
Among adults with at least a bachelor’s degree, 77% viewed privacy policies as something to get past, compared with 60% of adults with a high-school diploma or less. Pew Research Center, How Americans protect their online data and privacy.
Knowledge and confidence did not align neatly with behavior. In the same period, 21% answered at least four of five privacy and cybersecurity questions correctly, 55% answered two or three correctly, and 24% answered zero or one correctly.
Technology confidence was self-assessed: 53% were very confident using computers, smartphones or other devices online, 36% somewhat confident, and 11% had little or no confidence. Among the most tech-confident adults, 83% trusted themselves to make privacy decisions, compared with 56% of the least confident; password-manager use was 41% versus 17%.
Other least-confident-group results included 66% using a phone passcode when they owned a phone and 55% declining cookies or other website tracking. Overall, 45% were both very or somewhat concerned about company data use and frequent skippers of unread privacy policies; among the most privacy-knowledgeable adults, 75% frequently skipped policies compared with 36% of the least knowledgeable, an association that should not be treated as causal. Pew Research Center, How Americans’ online privacy choices relate to their knowledge, tech confidence and data concerns.
Federal Facial-Recognition Surveillance Statistics
Government-agency counts provide a different lens from public opinion. A Government Accountability Office review found that 20 of 42 U.S. federal law-enforcement agencies reported owning facial-recognition systems or using systems owned by other entities at some point from January 2015 through March 2020.
For the April 2018–March 2020 use window, 14 agencies reported using facial recognition to support criminal investigations, and all 14 also used non-federal systems. Only one of those agencies knew which non-federal systems its employees used, an oversight finding rather than a prevalence estimate for all agencies.
The GAO also reported six agencies using facial recognition on images from unrest, riots or protests following George Floyd’s death in May 2020, and three agencies using it on images from the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. These are agency-reported activities, and they do not establish that every agency searched such images. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Facial Recognition Technology: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Better Assess Privacy and Other Risks.
A separate GAO survey of 24 federal CFO Act agencies found that 18 reported using a facial-recognition system in fiscal year 2020. Purpose counts overlap because an agency could report more than one use:
| Facial-recognition purpose | Agencies, FY 2020 | Survey universe |
|---|---|---|
| Any reported use | 18 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
| Digital access or cybersecurity | 16 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
| Unlocking agency-issued smartphones | 14 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
| Criminal-investigation leads | 6 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
| Physical security | 5 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
| Website identity verification testing | 2 | 24 CFO Act agencies |
The website result describes testing, not operational deployment. Physical-security uses included monitoring locations or controlling facility access, while investigative use counted agencies rather than individual searches or cases. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Facial Recognition Technology: Current and Planned Uses by Federal Agencies.
How to Interpret Surveillance Privacy Statistics
These figures should not be read as a count of home-camera ownership, installed surveillance equipment or total camera volume. Pew results are survey estimates of U.S. adults or labeled subgroups, measuring perceptions, attitudes or self-reported behavior; the 2023 study surveyed 5,101 U.S. adults May 15–21, 2023 and weighted results to the U.S. adult population, while the 2019 study surveyed 4,272 adults June 3–17, 2019.
The 2014 camera-avoidance results are older and measure perceived visibility. GAO figures are agency-reported counts from defined federal-agency survey universes, purpose counts may overlap, and any planned facial-recognition expansion would be a plan or forecast rather than observed adoption.