Despite its financial troubles, the U.S. Postal Service for the sixth straight year is the most trusted federal agency for privacy protection, according to the think tank Ponemon Institute.
The Federal Trade Commission, IRS, National Institute of Health and VA followed, while Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and the National Security Agency ranked as the least trusted.
The rankings are based on a survey of nearly 10,000 people.
One notable change from 2009 to 2010 was the Census Bureau’s drop by 39 percent, "likely attributable to the privacy-related controversy over the long-form census survey."
"Overall the public’s opinion of the federal government’s commitment to protecting personal privacy also fell to an all time low of 38 percent, which may have been affected by a number of political issues, such as the census as well as debate over national healthcare reform and the creation of a national health data network," the organization said.