Poll: Facebook is officially tech’s least-trusted company

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There was a time, around the turn of the century, when Americans thought tech companies would help us all live better and easier lives. And for the most part, that has come to fruition. But it’s also true, especially recently, that the trust that many people had in these companies and their gadgets has largely faded.

A Facebook scandal, in which as many as 87 million people had their personal info scraped by a political analytics firm, has brought unprecedented scrutiny on the social media site. And the pressure doesn’t seem to be lessening anytime soon.

Poll: These tech companies are the least trusted when it comes to protecting your data

Just this week, cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs said that Facebook deleted nearly 120 private groups on the site aimed at discussing and learning how to defraud people via cybercrime. The groups totaled more than 300,000 members, according to Krebs, who said he alerted the social media site.

With such disclosures becoming far too common, they lend credence to the alarming lack of confidence people have in tech companies these days.

A recent joint SurveyMonkey/Recode poll shows that Facebook is the least-trusted major tech company in the United States. A little more than half the people surveyed said that they trust the social networking site founded by Mark Zuckerberg the least with their personal information.

Which tech companies do Americans trust the least with their data?

The survey, which polled 2,772 U.S. adults online on April 8 and 9, consisted of people being presented with many of the major players in Silicon Valley today: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Lyft, Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla, Twitter, Snap and Uber were included. Here’s how the numbers shook out:

  • Facebook — 56%
  • Google —  5%
  • Uber — 3%
  • Twitter —  3%
  • Snap — 2%
  • Apple — 2%
  • Amazon — 2%
  • Microsoft, Lyft, Uber and Netflix — 1% or less
About 20% of respondents chose none of the companies, while 4% didn’t answer, according to Recode.
From the poll’s results, aside from Facebook, it’s clear that the privacy mishaps of Apple, Google and others have also played a role in fracturing the public’s trust.
Money expert Clark Howard says that trust is also an issue when it comes to who we friend and follow on social media.
“We have had a number of calls from people who have lost money to scamsters impersonating family and friends,” Clark says. Because of this, he says we should be leery of using social media.

This post was last modified on July 10, 2018 11:22 am

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