The Facebook Love Affair Is Finally Over: Users Lose Trust

Two recent polls tell the story: Facebook has lost trust with its users.

In light of the revelation that Cambridge America used data from 50 million Facebook users for political purposes without users permission, the social media company’s stock fell by 14% in last week’s trading and #DeleteFacebook continues to trend online.

“We know this is an issue of trust,” FB COO Sheryl Sandberg said on CNBC. “We know this is a critical moment for our company.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed more than 2,200 people. If found that only 41% of Americans trust Facebook to “obey laws that protect personal information.”

Do you trust _____________ to obey laws that protect personal information?

66% Amazon

62% Google

60% Microsoft

47% Yahoo

41% Facebook

SOURCE: REUTERS/IPSOS POLL

All this despite apologies from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and public statements like the full page ads Facebook took out. “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it,” said the ad in an open letter from Zuckerberg.

“This was a breach of trust and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” the ad said under Zuckerberg’s signature. “I promise to do better for you.”

Apologies aside, I’d say it’s a pretty big problem when less than half of Americans think your company will obey the law.

A second poll, released Monday by Axios, showed FB’s favorability has dropped dramatically in the past months. While other tech giants (Amazon, Google, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft) also saw their numbers decline, Facebook had the biggest plunge dropping to single digits.