The survey of some 2,000 Americans taken last week as the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach story was ebbing reveals few surprises (see box at right).
The Reuters/IPSOS survey, however, emphasizes one of the main issues Facebook will need to address to avoid further erosion of its business (the company lost $58 billion in value last week and shares were off as we went to to press due to the Federal Trade Commission confirming it has opened an examination into Facebook’s data-handling practices). No large tech company that gathers data on users is trusted less than Facebook to handle such information lawfully, the survey shows.
Trust is The Main Ingredient
As Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, said late last week on CNBC, regaining trust is the company’s top priority. Both Edelman and the Reputation Institute (RI) released their annual reports about trust and reputation. Both reports were dour: Edelman found trust continuing to erode for brands and governments; RI said corporate reputation in 2018 will decline for the first time since 2009 (PRN, March 20). Apparently Facebook faces an uphill challenge to return to the public’s good graces.
How does it get there? RI’s report emphasizes clear and frequent communication from the CEO. As we note in The Week in PR, Sandberg and Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg were silent for 5 days after a page 1 story in the Sunday NY Times and the Observer of London (March 18) detailed how Cambridge Analytica allegedly siphoned the data of 50 million Facebook users and provided it to consultants working for the Trump presidential election campaign in 2016.
Will regulation work? The same Reuters/IPSOS poll has 46% of adults in favor of additional government oversight of how tech companies handle user information; 17% want less oversightand 18% were unsure.
Another data point of interest for Facebook and other brands: 63% of those polled want less targeted advertising; just 9% want more. (More on the Facebook fallout in The Week in PR. )
