Facebook and Google Trust Is Eroding Yet It’s Too Early for Communicators to Abandon Ship

Trust, thy name is not Facebook. Go, ahead, Google it. But is Google a trusted source?

Joking aside, Facebook is not the sole tech brand with a trust deficit. Put Google in that category, based on a new Gallup survey of 1,509 U.S. adults, April 2-8 (Charts A and B).

Look at the first line in each table; users have little trust in Facebook (55%) and Google (57%) not to sell their data or otherwise handle it judiciously. Ditto for invasion of privacy.

In October 2011, when Gallup asked about invasion of privacy re Facebook, it was just 30% of respondents who were very concerned. It’s now 43%.

Congressional Curse
Another way of looking at the data is to see it as an indication of how much brands should avoid doing things resulting in their being called before Congress.