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Facebook Privacy

Only 22% of Americans Now Trust Facebook's Handling of Personal Info (fortune.com) 75

An anonymous reader quotes Fortune: Facebook is the least trustworthy of all major tech companies when it comes to safeguarding user data, according to a new national poll conducted for Fortune, highlighting the major challenges the company faces following a series of recent privacy blunders. Only 22% of Americans said that they trust Facebook with their personal information, far less than Amazon (49%), Google (41%), Microsoft (40%), and Apple (39%)....

In question after question, respondents ranked the company last in terms of leadership, ethics, trust, and image... Public mistrust extended to Zuckerberg, Facebook's public face during its privacy crisis and who once said that Facebook has "a responsibility to protect your information, If we can't, we don't deserve it." The company subsequently fell victim to a hack but continued operating as usual, including debuting a video-conferencing device intended to be used in people's living rooms or kitchens and that further extends Facebook's reach into more areas outside of personal computers and smartphones. Only 59% of respondents said they were "at least somewhat confident" in Zuckerberg's leadership in the ethical use of data and privacy information, ranking him last among four other tech CEOS...

As for Facebook, the social networking giant may have a difficult time regaining public trust because of its repeated problems. Consumers are more likely to forgive a company if they believe a problem was an aberration rather than a systemic failure by its leadership, Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema said.

The article concludes that "For now, the public isn't in a forgiving mood when it comes to Facebook and Zuckerberg."
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Only 22% of Americans Now Trust Facebook's Handling of Personal Info

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  • Backwards (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Barny ( 103770 ) on Saturday November 10, 2018 @05:50PM (#57623250) Journal

    I think the crazy thing here is that 22% of Americans still trust Facebook with their private data. That number is astonishingly high.

    • Agree. The number should be a lot closer to zero.
    • I think the crazy thing here is that 22% of Americans still trust Facebook with their private data. That number is astonishingly high.

      I thiink that the 20 percent rule is in effect. That's the concept that 20 percent of any group will be good with whatever.

      Which means that there is a group of people who are just fine with Facebook giving data to say, Cambridge Analytica, who used that data to help make things happen that they wanted to happen.

      If it was a different political group of a different leaning that CA helped, that 20 percent would have been happy.

    • It's lower than the number who believe in a bearded man who wears a dress and lives in the clouds who sees everything they do.

      Choose your punchline:
      Don't be silly, Zuckerberg doesn't have a beard.
      The difference is God doesn't think he's Mark Zuckerberg.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Some people still have to work out what social media does with its ads. The users data is rented out to real customers who pay.
      The users are the product over the years.
    • is that 22% of Americans are employed by Facebook or have a close relative who is.
    • by berchca ( 414155 )

      ditto.

    • by jma05 ( 897351 )

      80% of adult americans believe angels are real.
      33% thought that Saddam was personally involved in 911, more than a decade after, about the same number think that gay is a choice.
      18% still believe earth is at the center of the universe.

      All things considered 22% is actually not a bad good number.

    • I think it's probably better stated as "22% of Americans aren't paying any attention."

      ... or, and I don't want to get into a political pissing match, but there are some people who like to be in denial or defiance of common knowledge, science, and the news. You know, conspiracy theorists, flat earthers, people who think global warming is an elaborate hoax, what have you. There are probably some people in that 22% who know plenty to know that Facebook isn't trustworthy, but think the news they're getting o

    • Read that as 22% of Americans are idiots!
  • by melted ( 227442 ) on Saturday November 10, 2018 @05:50PM (#57623252) Homepage

    Apple is lower than Google? WTF kind of poll is that? Google literally sells you out to advertisers as their primary business model.

    • BS. Google thinks your information is way too valuable to sell it to advertisers. They don't share it. and that's a good thing. Google keeps all the information and use it to allow advertisers to target (using google's tools & API's, not the raw data.)

      The dystopian stuff happens when the data is shared willy nilly, and there isn't any particular person in charge of the data: Facebook providing API's that allow open harvesting, Apps on IOS and Android that allow similar harvesting by random 1 or 2 p

  • by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Saturday November 10, 2018 @05:51PM (#57623258)

    That FB is at the bottom doesn't shock me. That Apple is 2nd to last does. So does Google being so high in the rankings. And that Amazon is #1 is also pretty shocking.

    My personal trust ratings are: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, FB.

    • by lusid1 ( 759898 )

      Thats a much more accurate ranking of trustworthiness.

    • My personal trust ratings are: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, FB.

      Right. And that makes a lot more sense. This is basically an inverse ordering of how much of each business is based on collecting and selling personal information.

      Facebook wants to know who your friends and political affiliations are, Amazon wants to know when you'll buy your next roll of paper towels, and Apple is happiest just knowing your credit card number.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      For me, none of above. "Trust no one." --The X-Files

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Rank them like PRISM. Who helps the US gov/mil.
    • Yeah, I think your trust ratings are close to mine. Apple's the company that has the least incentive to invade your privacy and, as far as I know, the best track record. I'm actually getting annoyed with Apple that they're tightening security too much. It's getting to the point where you need to use DEP and MDM in order to be able to administer Apple devices. With their newest OS, even if you have root access it blocks you from doing all kinds of things without user intervention.

  • I can't imagine anyone saying they trust Facebook with their data.
  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday November 10, 2018 @06:16PM (#57623352)
    I want the list of the 22% because I have some emails to send them for all sorts of wonderful products.
    • Sadly many of the people do not know they they have won the lottery or have an inheritance is a foreign country.
  • Handling of Personal Info. There, FTFY.

  • That 22% is all the bots, anyway. We're good now.

  • Kill your Facebook account TODAY! Help put the final nails in Zuckerbooks' coffin! Victory is within our grasp!
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Dumb fucks.

  • ... still use it.

  • "22% of Americans for some unfathomable reason still trust Facebook's handling of personal info"

  • Only 22% of Americans will admit to trusting Facebook, yet 68% of Americans still use it. That says to me that a LOT of these 'untrusting' souls are in fact liars. If you truly distrust a company whose products and services you don't really need, then you simply don't maintain a relationship with them. If you DO continue to do business with them, then your protestations of mistrust are pretty much meaningless. Such people are likely motivated by conformism and/or wanting to be seen as informed citizens; if

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