Public’s Trust in Big Tech Companies is Decreasing Exponentially

By: Ezra Ashkenazi

Over the last couple of years there has been various scandals where large tech companies have been illegally using its customers’ private information. As a result of this, the public has lost trust in these companies, and a lot of them believe that these companies only generate negativity to the world. In 2015, only 17 percent of people believed that these companies were bad for society, and 71percent of people believed that these companies were not only not negative, but were positive for the world. However, after all of the scandals that have happened since then, the people’s opinion has changed drastically. Today, only 50 percent of people believe that the big tech companies have a positive impact on the United States of America. An interesting thing about this survey is that the opinions run along political lines. Democrats are more likely to say that the companies are positively impacting the country, while Republicans think that these companies are negative.

However, since 2015, the rates of people that believe that these companies are good for society has decreased drastically in both the Democratic and Republican parties. A 2018 study found that 55 percent of Americans believed that the companies have too much influence and too much power, which isn’t ideal considering they possess so much of people’s private information. The same 2018 study found that 72 percent of Americans believe that these companies even know their political stance, and will censor or block a political advertisement if it is different from their view.

The companies might think that they are making the user’s life easier by doing this, but really, they are blocking them from the diversity of the world, which is the complete opposite of the point of these social media platforms. With Facebook getting hit with a staggering 5 billion dollar fine recently, people’s eyes are starting to open a little more to see the power these companies have, and at the same time, the information that these companies have access to. Many people believe that this fine has served as an example for companies that try to pull the same thing to their customers, and that companies won’t dare do what Facebook did. Either way you look at, it is important that one acts smartly when making the decision to join various social media platforms.