More Users Trust Amazon and Google to Handle Their Personal User Data Than Apple, Survey Suggests

According to a new survey, more users trust Amazon and Google to handle their personal user data and internet browsing activity than Apple, while users overwhelmingly distrust Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

apple privacy
The survey conducted by The Washington Post sampled over 1,000 internet users in the U.S. about how much they trust Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon to "responsibly" handle their user data and browsing activity.

Users were polled on whether they trust the companies and platforms "a great deal," "a good amount," "not much," or "not at all," with users also able to state they had no opinion of a given company.

Among respondents, 18% said they trust Apple "a great deal," while Google and Amazon scored 14%. But in the "a good amount" category, Amazon took the lead with 39%, Google with 34%, and Apple trailing with 26%. Combining the two positive categories, Apple's overall net positive score was 44%, lagging behind Google's 48% and Amazon's 53%.

internet trust survey
On the negative side, survey data indicated that out of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, 40% of those surveyed said they don't trust Facebook at all to handle their user data. Facebook took the crown for being the least trustworthy out of all those listed. A separate survey last week revealed a similar sentiment amongst users, naming Facebook, now known as Meta, as the worst company of 2021.

Apple tied Amazon for the best net negative score at 40%, with Microsoft coming in at 42% and Google at 47%.

Internet users were also asked about targeted online advertising, with 82% saying they find targeted online ads annoying, 74% finding them invasive, and only 27% finding them helpful. One of Apple's most controversial and talked-about privacy measures introduced in recent years is App Tracking Transparency, which indirectly aims to limit the annoying and invasive ads seemingly disliked by most users.

App Tracking Transparency (ATT) requires apps to ask for users' consent before tracking them across other apps and websites. For users opted out of the tracking, apps and data brokers such as Facebook have fewer data points to show users targeted advertising online. Facebook has lobbied against ATT, calling it harmful to small businesses that rely on ads to keep afloat.

Tag: Privacy

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Top Rated Comments

sunapple Avatar
46 months ago
Hard evidence users have no clue about their privacy.
Score: 162 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
46 months ago
The survey shows there a lot of dumb and ignorant tech users.
Score: 78 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mlrollin91 Avatar
46 months ago
Ah, yes. Trust the company that makes its money by selling your data. Makes perfect sense!
Score: 73 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Madhatter32 Avatar
46 months ago
Google and Amazon over Apple? Seriously? As George Carlin used to say, "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aplnub Avatar
46 months ago
I don't trust any of them. Apple has ruined their privacy high ground. At least FB and Amazon didn't parade around holier then though about it.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adamjackson Avatar
46 months ago
It's good to see it visualized this way. The No opinion category is what put Apple behind Amazon which means not enough people know how massively intrusive Amazon is and how massively privacy conscious Apple is by comparison.

A few journalists have blocked traffic to Amazon's IP block on their computer and found the internet is basically not usable. This isn't a privacy violation in itself but it shows how much control Amazon has on the global internet.

EDIT: here's an article back in 2019 - https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-was-impossible-1830565336
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)