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TECH​ ​FACEBOOK

Facebook Is the Least Trusted Major Tech Compan When it Comes to Safeguarding Personal Data, Poll Finds BY

JONATHAN VANIAN​ at Fortune

November 8, 2018 6:00 AM PST

1 ​ Facebook​ is the least trustworth of all major tech companies when it comes to safeguarding

user data, according to a new national poll conducted for ​Fort ne, ​highlighting the major challenges the compan faces following a series of recent privac blunders. Onl 22% of Americans said that the trust Facebook with their personal information, far less than Ama on (49%), Google (41%), Microsoft (40%), and Apple (39%).

2 ​ Facebook is in the bottom in terms of trust in housing our personal data, said Harris Poll

CEO John Ger ema. Facebook s crises continue rolling in the news c cle.

3 ​ The finding is just one of man that underscore the damage to Facebook s reputation along

with that of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. In question after question, respondents ranked the compan last in terms of leadership, ethics, trust, and image.

4 ​ In April, Facebook acknowledged that a researcher had improperl accessed and sold

personal data of up to ​87 million users​ to political consulting firm ​Cambridge Anal tica.​ In September, Facebook admitted to another privac disaster: A ​hack​ that ​included the emails and phone numbers​ of up to 30 million users.

5 ​ Adding to the bad news, Facebook failed to prevent Russian entities from spreading fake and

misleading news in prelude to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Although the compan has added staff to fight false information and is building technolog to automaticall flag it, the compan continues to struggle with fighting ​disinformation ​.

6 ​ The stakes for Facebook are high. Dail active users in the U.S. and Canada has remained

stagnant​ over the past ear at 185 million, although it s unclear whether that s because of

privac worries or that adding more is difficult because a huge slice of those countries populations are alread active.

7 ​ Facebook declined to comment about the poll. The compan instead pointed to remarks

Zuckerberg made recentl in which he said that the compan continues to invest in securit and that its defenses are improving.

8 ​ In an effort to determine the impact on Facebook s image, and how it compared to its tech

giant peers, ​Fort ne ​ enlisted Harris Poll to conduct a surve on its behalf of over 2,000 U.S. adults representing the population at large. The online poll was done in mid-October and also included questions about ​Ama on ​, ​Apple ​, ​Microsoft​, ​Google ​.

9 ​ The findings show that public perception of Facebook has tumbled. Fort -eight percent

of respondents said the viewed Facebook more negativel than six months prior, dwarfing the 17% who said the felt more positivel .

10 ​ That increased negativit is three to eight times greater than other big tech

companies over the same period. For example, onl 7% of respondents said the felt more negativel about Microsoft while 28% had a more positive view. Ama on had the biggest gain among the companies in terms of perception. A mere 10% of respondents

felt more negativel about the compan over the past six months versus 39% having a more positive view.

11 ​ Facebook s poor showing in the poll comes despite a number of privac problems

involving other companies included in the poll. But the public appears less concerned or aware about those problems than Facebook s.

12 ​ For example, Google recentl caught flak for ​Project Dragonfl ,​ an experimental

search engine that it s considering introducing in China that censors results that the government there considers objectionable like about human rights. Meanwhile, Ama on and Microsoft are in the cross hairs for controversial ​deals with government agencies​, including one involving ​facial-recognition technolog ​ that some ​critics sa could ​ lead to a surveillance state or ​racial discrimination ​.

13 ​ Public mistrust extended to Zuckerberg, Facebook s public face during its privac

crisis and who once ​said ​ that Facebook has a responsibilit to protect our information, If we can t, we don t deserve it. The compan subsequentl 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.

14 ​ Onl 59% of respondents said the were at least somewhat confident in

Zuckerberg s leadership in the ethical use of data and privac information, ranking him last among four other tech CEOS. Ama on CEO Jeff Be os led the poll with 77%, compared to Apple CEO Tim Cook with 72%, Microsoft CEO Sat a Nadella with 71%, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai with 68%.

15 ​ That would be a C or D in grade school, Ger ema said about Zuckerberg.

16 ​ Despite Be os s top ranking on data ethics, however, Ger ema noted that Be os and

his compan t picall receives higher approval in other Harris polls, sometimes even reaching the high 90%s.

17 ​ This is just a theor , but I think we are practicall on the cusp of growing societal

concerns of Ama on s increasing reach in our lives, Ger ema said.

18 ​ The fact that Ama on continues to expand into more businesses like health care

after alread uprooting the retail and enterprise tech industries ma prompt people to take a dimmer view of it, like the did with Microsoft during the late 1990s, he speculated.

19 ​ As for Facebook, the social networking giant ma have a difficult time regaining

public trust because of its repeated problems. Consumers are more likel to forgive a compan if the believe a problem was an aberration rather than a s stemic failure b its leadership, Ger ema said.

20 ​ For now, the public isn t in a forgiving mood when it comes to Facebook and

Zuckerberg.