For the third year in a row, the Postal Service was the U.S. government agency Americans most trusted to guard their privacy, followed by the Federal Trade Commission, the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the National Institutes of Health and the Census Bureau.

The survey, conducted via mail and e-mail by the Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, sampled the views of over 7,000 Americans. It was the third annual survey conducted by the organization, a think tank "dedicated to independent research and education that advances responsible information and privacy management practices within business and government," according to its Web site.

In addition to the DHS and the TSA, the other U.S. agencies least trusted by Americans over the past three years were the National Security Agency, the CIA, the office of the U.S. Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency within homeland security that deals with foreigners who want to become citizens.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another homeland security agency, and the Department of Veterans Affairs joined the list of least-trusted agencies for the first time in 2007.

Public confidence in the privacy record of the Department of Veterans Affairs dropped by an unprecedented 41 percent over the past year, from 72 percent and a place in the top five last year, to 31 percent, and a place in the bottom five agencies.

Institute Director Larry Ponemon attributed this decline largely to the high profile breaches of the security of personal data the department suffered during 2006.

The National Security Agency, also in the news for its role in monitoring the electronic communications of Americans with suspected terrorists or their associates abroad, also lost public confidence, down nine points from 28 to 19 percent.

"The spotlight was on the (NSA) and the (DVA) last year," Ponemon said. He said the reverse phenomenon might help to account for the sight bump in confidence, from 19 to 25 percent, received by the TSA.

During 2004-5, he said, the TSA was "in the news almost every day, often because of privacy concerns," especially about its next-generation passenger name screening system, dubbed Secure Flight.

Over the past year, with Secure Flight back in development behind closed doors, the TSA, had "not been in the news so much" at least for those reasons, Ponemon said.

TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa declined to comment in detail, saying only that the agency "is fully committed to privacy in the implementation of our security mission, as our relationship with the traveling public is one of our most fundamental assets."

Former DHS Chief Privacy Officer Maureen Cooney told UPI that the department's transparency on the issue was probably the most important single factor in any explanation of the improvement it experienced: confidence rising last year from 17 to 22 percent.

"The public appreciates a department that says, 'We meant well, we made a mistake,'" she said, referring to a series of controversies in which homeland security had become embroiled.

She said the improvement also reflected the "wisdom of Congress in giving (the department) a strong, independent chief privacy officer."

"By being honest about our progress (on privacy) we build confidence in the role of the privacy office."

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