Poll: Spy Agencies Least Trusted Federal Agencies

Via Govexec.com -

The CIA, Homeland Security Department and National Security Agency are the least trusted federal agencies when it comes to protecting Americans' privacy, according to a new study by the Ponemon Institute.

The annual survey, which will be released Wednesday, asked more than 7,000 citizens whether they believe the government takes appropriate steps to safeguard personal information. Answers were mixed, but the overall trend suggested a decline in public trust since the think tank first studied the issue in 2004.

The NSA has suffered a substantial flogging by lawmakers and privacy advocates amid questions in the past year over its domestic spying in search of terrorists. It also was revealed recently that the CIA has been utilizing a special subpoena power of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act to comb bank and credit-card records.

Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which were evaluated separately in the survey, have experienced their fair share of controversy over the mining of information from government and commercial databases and a program that screens travelers entering the United States.

After last year's massive breach of more than 27 million military personnel's data, furthermore, the Veterans Administration fell from a top-five ranking in 2006 to just outside the bottom five in the 2007 Ponemon study.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' office also was among the least trusted of the 74 federal entities included in the poll.

"There's a clear correlation between bad publicity and poor privacy trust performance," survey author Larry Ponemon said. Previous studies "lacked a big headline negative event," whereas this time, there were several.

"Initiating more transparent operations and communications with the public is often the first step toward repairing damaged trust, but for obvious reasons, those are not options that agencies like the CIA or NSA can take," Ponemon said. The confidential nature of the agencies' operations "will always carry a certain cloud of mistrust with some."

----------------------------------------------

As much as I agree that some things need to change...others need to be updated, overall I think this poll shows the big disconnect between those in the know and those that are not. As a member of the general public, I consider myself one of those not in the know.

There are people that have served in these agencies that have given everything to protect the way of life that most of us take for granted every day. There is no award, or public thank you waiting for them....only silence, secrecy and maybe a nameless star on the wall.

So as a member of the general public that isn't in the know, let me say "Thank you" to those guys & gals doing things that can't be talked about.