Americans widely distrust Facebook, TikTok and Instagram with their data, poll finds
Pulled between not trusting some tech companies and still wanting to use their products, people look to government regulation, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
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Heather Kelly and Emily Guskin | Washington Post | December 22, 2021
You’ll find all the usual technology suspects inside Mary Veselka’s Pearland, Tex., home. There’s her iPhone, a school-issued iPad for her young daughter and the latest boxes delivered from Amazon. The full-time mother has an active Facebook account and a TikTok account, and sitting in her living room is an Echo speaker, its Alexa voice assistant always ready to add items to her shopping list or turn off the lights.
Like many Americans, Veselka’s daily life is saturated with the products and services pushed by big technology companies, paid and free. And like many Americans, she simultaneously does not trust the businesses or the people running them when it comes to privacy issues, but can’t simply shake them off, either. She doesn’t like the way Facebook collects her personal data to target ads, or the kinds of videos YouTube offers to her child, and she suspects that her devices are always listening.
“We go into it knowing that we can’t really trust them, but I don’t think we can get around not using it,” Veselka, 30, said of her technology. “I’ve tried giving up Facebook for a period of time. … It’s just not really something you can do and still maintain a regular social life.”
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