Sixty-one percent of US citizens rate secure data handling as extremely important for government digital services according to a recent survey from Gartner.
A Gartner survey of 1,576 U.S. citizens from July to September 2025 found that despite this being the top identified concern, net citizen trust in the government’s handling of personal data is at 41%.
Another 54% of U.S. citizens cited “transparency in how my data will be used” as influencing their comfort with digital government services. The leading factors influencing a citizen’s comfort level in sharing personal data are assurance of data privacy and protection (61% of U.S. respondents) and trust in government data security measures (56% of U.S. respondents).
“Trust in government is crucial for the success of digital transformation and increased citizen engagement, yet there is a significant gap between U.S. citizen expectations and current practices,” said Mike Shevlin, Sr. Director Analyst at Gartner.
Government CIOs must manage the tension between aggressive digital transformation and citizen trust.
“While CIOs are investing in AI for citizen experience, citizens actually prioritize security and transparency of their data over seamless experience,” said Shevlin.
Government CIOs must execute against these expectations by adopting a culture of privacy-by-design, making privacy the default setting and ensuring comprehensive protection throughout the entire life cycle.
To improve public confidence in cybersecurity, government CIOs must prioritize technological robustness and effective public communication by strengthening security measures, ensuring radical transparency during incidents and building confidence through partnerships and radical ideas.
Citizens want to know how their data will be used and they want control over their data. This is rooted in the concept of personal data sovereignty. Government CIOs can:
- Provide transparency and control: Transparency involves allowing citizens to see what information the government holds about them and granting them the ability to control how that information is used and shared. Government CIOs can publish audit and usage data that support their transparency promises.
- Mandate transparency audits: Mandate regular internal and external audits of data usage practices, producing public-facing reports. According to the Gartner survey, many U.S. respondents (44%) cite understanding how the government will use their data as extremely important.
- Address AI’s Impact on Transparency: While CIOs are rapidly deploying tools like generative AI(41% of CIOs reported existing deployments in the 2026 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey) and citizens are open to using advanced digital assistants, AI raises significant questions about algorithms’ nontransparent use of data. CIOs must counter this by emphasizing explainable AI initiatives, ensuring that citizens can receive plain-language explanations for decisions that affect them.
Photo by Conny Schneider on Unsplash
