30 facts explain breakdown in digital trust

Digital trust is going through a meltdown.

What started as an age of opportunities where social channels and open sources platforms opened up publishing, networking and business building possibilities with real, human connections has evolved into a new age of privacy concerns, fake news, fake accounts, bots, unwanted solicitations and spam.

What can brands do about it? Take a more active role in the context where their messaging and ads appear. Monitor the audience being built. Manage and measure customer experience and rely on first-party, not third-party, data.

Here are 30 facts to explain the breakdown in digital trust.

583 million fake accounts were identified on Facebook last year. Facebook says they removed them in the 1st Quarter of 2018 to try to improve digital trust.
Nearly 48 million Twitter accounts are bots.
89% of consumers now read businesses’ responses to reviews to see if they should trust the business.
86% of consumers prefer security over convenience.
81% of Facebook users say that they have little to no confidence in Facebook to protect their data and privacy.
Yet, 77% of Facebook’s US monthly active users access the app on a daily basis, and this daily habit of hundreds of millions of Americans will be a difficult one to break.
77% of Americans believe mainstream media reports fake news.
68% of Californians believe the tech industry is under-regulated and 69% of people who work in the tech industry in California say their companies could increase oversight to improve digital trust.
66% of consumers trust Amazon to obey privacy laws; 62% trust Google to obey privacy laws and 41% trust Facebook to obey privacy laws.
66% drop in trust for Facebook since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
65% of consumers want Facebook to disclose how they use personal data they collect.
62% of US adults get their news on social media.
57% of consumers will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars.
56% of Americans trust Facebook the least of any major tech company with their personal information.
54% of consumers believe organizations will sell their data.
54% of B2B marketers say Facebook is their most important platform.
48% of consumers have stopped using the services of at least one organization due to a data breach and breakdown in digital trust.
44% of the general population gets news from Facebook.
44% of Facebook users say they recently changed their privacy settings on Facebook, and were sharing less with friends and followers. 80% say it’s due to negative stories about Facebook and privacy.
43% of Californians trust cannabis growers more than social media companies which only 33% of Californians trust.
40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year.
32% of consumers say a good thing about Facebook is that it is the best way to remember birthdays.
31% believe mainstream media reports fake news regularly.
30% of marketers think Facebook offers the highest digital ad ROI.
Only 24% of U.S. internet users think Facebook will do enough to protect privacy in the future,
18% of US adults get news for social media often.
Only 6% of US internet users say they trust media and ent ertainment companies.
Only 6% say they trust social media.
Only 3% say they trust marketing and advertising firms.
Facebook ad revenue has increased 2X in last 3 years.