Majority of Americans want stronger oversight of government data-sharing

According to a report published Tuesday by the nonprofit advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology, a majority of Americans want stronger oversight of the data practices of all levels of government.

The report draws from a survey, conducted last month, of more than 1,000 United States residents. Seventy-four percent were concerned about the privacy and security of personal data held by government agencies. The concerns, the report’s authors pointed out, coincide with efforts by the Trump administration over the last year to consolidate sensitive personal data safeguarded by states. These concerns, the report said, are about how the government collects, shares and uses the personal data it possesses. Nearly 8 in 10 surveyed said they supported holding government agencies accountable for privacy violations.

The report’s authors noted that these high levels of concern were consistent across a number of demographic groups — including political affiliation, geography, race and ethnicity — though concerns were particularly high among older adults and communities of color, and somewhat higher among Democrats on the issue of sharing data without consent.

The report follows more than a year of actions by the White House to access and consolidate sensitive personal data typically held by states. In March of last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, titled Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos, directing federal agencies to gain access to data held by state programs that receive federal funding, including relevant data held by vendors.

The White House last week released an executive order, titled Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, aiming to expand federal efforts to access and consolidate personal data about Americans by creating a task force to combat fraud and promote more data-sharing between federal agencies and state, local, tribal and territorial governments. Published a year apart, both orders cited concerns of fraud across benefits programs run by state governments, particularly in Minnesota, which faced scrutiny for its handling of welfare fraud.

Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, in January of 2025 announced several efforts to reduce fraud against the state’s assistance programs, including an experimental AI pilot. This year, he introduced a legislative package aimed at combating fraud through the use of predictive analytics and machine learning to identify suspicious transactions earlier in the application process. Tarek Tomes, the state’s former chief information officer, shared last summer that AI would play a key role in the state’s fraud-prevention program.

More than 80% of respondents said legal protections for personal data are important, but fewer than half said they were familiar with their data rights. Eighty-three percent said they were concerned about potential data breaches and that misuse of government-held information could lead to surveillance or discourage people from accessing public benefits. Forty-four percent agreed with the statement: “If I were eligible to receive government benefits, I would not sign up for these benefits if I was unsure how the government would use my personal data.”

The report also highlights a strong public demand for accountability and stricter safeguards as federal efforts to expand access to state-held data face legal and political scrutiny. Almost 80% said they would support measures like requiring agencies to obtain consent before sharing data, limiting collection to what is necessary and increasing transparency about how information is used.

Respondents expressed particular concern about sensitive data — such as Social Security numbers, financial records and health information — and about the sharing of that data with law enforcement or immigration authorities. And while almost half of states have a consumer data privacy law on the books, those laws often do not regulate how governments can gather, possess, store or sell the data they amass.

“At a time when trust in government is at an all time low, protecting personal data is more important than ever. Mishandling personal information destroys trust in government, and that makes it harder for agencies to deliver services, resulting in an American public that is more sick, unhoused, and undernourished,” Elizabeth Laird, director of the Equity in Civic Technology Project at CDT, said in a news release. “People want their privacy protected, and bipartisan majorities want their elected leaders to do something about it. Lawmakers who ignore privacy are significantly out of step with their constituents.”