Facebook gave companies 'intrusive' access to private messages and personal data
Senator-elect Josh Hawley discusses Facebook's misuse of user data.
Last week, the latest in a long string of Facebook privacy scandals came to light: According to a report in The New York Times, the company skirted its own privacy rules to give more than 150 companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, special privileges to its users' data.
This came days after disclosure of a bug exposing up to 6.8 million users' private photos to third-party app developers. These are only the two most recent controversies surrounding the social giant, which has come under fire time and again since the 2016 election for everything from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal to high-profile security breaches.
According to a December survey of 1,000 people conducted earlier this month by research company Toluna, 40 percent of respondents said they trust Facebook the least with their personal information. That deep mistrust stems not only from the various data leaks and privacy fiascos but also from revelations of how the company and its top executives, Mark Zuckeberg and Sheryl Sandberg, have handled those crises.
FACEBOOK'S LONELY CONSERVATIVE TAKES ON A POWER POSITION
Facebook is by far the most mistrusted tech company, according to Toluna's survey. Twitter and Amazon are tied for second, each with 8 percent of respondents saying they trust the respective companies least with their data.
Uber, with its own string of executive drama and shady programs now overshadowed by the tribulations of Facebook and the like, came in fourth at 7 percent. Lyft came in at 6 percent.
Google also garnered 6 percent of the mistrust vote on the heels of its slew of data and privacy-related controversies, as well as employee protests on a number of issues that culminated in Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifying before Congressthis month. We'd bet on Google being higher on the list of least trusted tech companies a year from now.
Rounding out the list are Apple and Snap at 4 percent, Microsoft at 2 percent, and Netflix and Tesla each at 1 percent.
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