Some 81% of Americans are concerned about how companies use their personal data, according to a large-scale study.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they have little to no understanding of what companies do with the data collected about them, and even more believe there’s nothing they can do about it …
The Pew Research Center carried out the survey of more than 5,000 US adults.
The public increasingly says they don’t understand what companies are doing with their data. Some 67% say they understand little to nothing about what companies are doing with their personal data, up from 59%.
Most believe they have little to no control over what companies or the government do with their data. While these shares have ticked down compared with 2019, vast majorities feel this way about data collected by companies (73%) and the government (79%).
Data collected by social media companies like X and Meta is of particular concern, with Americans trusting neither the companies themselves, nor the government’s ability to police them.
Some 77% of Americans have little or no trust in leaders of social media companies to publicly admit mistakes and take responsibility for data misuse.
And they are no more optimistic about the government’s ability to rein them in: 71% have little to no trust that these tech leaders will be held accountable by the government for data missteps.
Concerns are greatest when it comes to child privacy.
Some 89% are very or somewhat concerned about social media platforms knowing personal information about kids. Large shares also worry about advertisers and online games or gaming apps using kids’ data. And while most Americans (85%) say parents hold a great deal of responsibility for protecting kids’ online privacy, 59% also say this about tech companies and 46% about the government.
The vast majority of Republicans and Democrats alike want the government to introduce more privacy legislation.
There is bipartisan support for more regulation of what companies can do with people’s data. Some 72% of Americans say there should be more regulation than there is now; just 7% say there should be less. Support for more regulation reaches across the political aisle, with 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans taking this stance.
Though some individuals seemingly need to do a little more themselves: the report worryingly says that some 16% of smartphone owners don’t secure their phones.
Notably, 16% of smartphone users say they do not use a security feature – like a passcode, fingerprint or face recognition – to unlock their phone.
This is worst among the over 65 age range, where the figure rises to 28%.
You can read the full report here.
Photo: Glen Carrie/Unsplash
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