Survey on the US National Security Agency (NSA): Opinions, Concern and Information Security Awareness

Revelations about the United States National Security Agency (NSA) data collection sources and methods alerted global public to issues of data collection, surveillance and privacy. This article explores opinions of US and non-US residents about the NSA, their familiarity with Edward Snowden's revelations, related concerns and resulting rise in information security awareness. Relationships between IT proficiency and familiarity with Snowden's revelations and between concern with Snowden's revelations and increase in information security awareness are examined. Finally, differences in opinion about the NSA in several regions of the world are examined.