A New Poll Shows the Apple-Government Fight Has Split America

  • Fortune | by: Jonathan Chew |
  • 03/09/2016 12:00 AM
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With key differences between Republicans and Democrats

The battle between Apple and the FBI over accessing encrypted data in an iPhone has left Americans evenly divided over the conflict between privacy and national security.

In a new poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, around (42% of 1,200) voters surveyed said Apple  AAPL 0.17%  should cooperate with the FBI and unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. 47% said Apple shouldn’t cooperate.

Because the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points, the results are essentially split. But it’s the breakdown of voters’ party affiliations during thiselection season that reveal the real dichotomies:

Among registered voters who identified as Republicans, 57% said they were worried the government wasn’t doing all it could to protect the country’s national security. Of voters who called themselves Democrats, however, 50% said they were worried the government was going too far and would invade the privacy of its citizens. Among independents, 58% said Apple shouldn’t cooperate with the FBI, compared with 28% who said Apple should.
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