User privacy is a core aspect of modern-day technology. With this in mind, the management of personal data is crucial for every tech company. As per a new poll, people have more faith in Google and Amazon than Apple with regard to the handling of personal and internet activity data.
The survey comes from The Washington Post (via MacRumors), revealing how some of the largest tech corporations and their services fare in terms of user trust. Unsurprisingly, respondents demonstrated a significant mistrust of services like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Respondents were overwhelmingly against targeted online ads
The Post partnered with the Schar School for this poll while gathering info from 1,058 internet users across the U.S. Respondents had to rate nine services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple. Available options included “Trust not much/at all,” “Trust a great deal/a good amount,” and “No opinion.”
It seems like Apple’s figures took a beating due to the number of people who had “No opinion” on its practices. Around 40% of the respondents in the survey said they didn’t have “much” trust in Amazon or Apple. However, 53% of the users surveyed said they trusted Amazon a “great deal,” while only 44% had the same to say about Apple.
Meanwhile, Google had a higher mistrust percentage, with 47% of the respondents saying they didn’t trust the company. Apps like Facebook and TikTok topped the charts with 72% and 63% of the users saying they don’t trust the services “at all.”
Separately, users were also queried about targeted online advertising by services. And surprise, surprise, 82% said targeted online ads are irritating while 74% of them said it was invasive. Only 27% of them said it was helpful.
It is important to note here that this survey doesn’t actually compare the privacy measures taken by the companies. Instead, it only looks at how customers perceive them. Every company on this list has faced flak in the past for privacy-related issues.
Since Apple markets its products as heavily focused on user privacy, one would imagine more customers trusting its services. Perhaps the company needs to boost up its marketing, or maybe conduct a survey of its own. You can check out the survey data in closer detail from this link here.
2021-12-24 15:05:24