2022 vs. 2023: Do global consumers trust tech companies with their personal data?
A recent YouGov survey conducted across 18 international markets provides insights into whether global consumers trust certain sectors when it comes to safeguarding their personal data. In this piece, we look at attitudes towards tech companies.
From a global perspective, trust in tech companies has remained largely unchanged, from 40% in 2022 to 41% in 2023. However, the proportion of global consumers expressing distrust in tech companies handling personal data has inched upwards from 46% in 2022 to 48% in 2023.
Turning our focus to Asia, the levels of trust and distrust vary across markets. In both India and Indonesia, two-thirds of consumers (66%) trust tech companies with their handling of personal data in 2023. This figure is 41% for Singapore.
In Australia, trust in tech companies has grown from 38% last year, to 46% in 2023. Consumers in Great Britain and the US are least likely among all 18 markets surveyed to trust tech companies with their personal data (25% each).
On the other end of the trust spectrum, Hong Kong displayed a significant increase in distrust, with the percentage soaring from slightly more than two in five consumers in 2022 (43%) to almost three in five in 2023 (58%).
YouGov data also shows that 29% of UAE consumers showed distrust in tech companies’ handling of personal data, down five percentage points from 34% in 2022.
Distrust levels among consumers in the US and Great Britain are significantly higher than the trust levels - 63% of Americans and 61% of Britons (the highest in Europe) distrust tech companies with their personal data.
Although Spain has the highest proportion of consumers who expressed trust in tech companies (44%) compared to other European countries, half of consumers in Spain distrust tech companies with their personal data. Finally, distrust in Denmark has increased six percentage points, from 36% in 2022 to 42% in 2023.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 512 and 2,007 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in March 2022 and March 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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