Millennials trust social media platforms to safeguard their personal information less than any other type of website, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
A total of 61 percent have little or no trust in social media platforms to safeguard their data, according to the study conducted by software company Intercede. Other categories include dating sites (55 percent distrust), retailers (38 percent) and the federal government (22 percent).
Meanwhile, six times as many expressed “complete trust” in the government (18 percent) as in social media (3 percent). Retailers and dating sites each had the complete trust of 4 percent.
That means that in spite of this year’s Ashley Madison breach, which resulted in the theft of personal information on 33 million accounts, millennials still trust such websites more than they trust a social media platform like Facebook.
The study included a total of 2,028 respondents ages 16 to 35 from the United States and United Kingdom.
“The generation that has grown up in a digital-first world and witnessed the rapid advancement of connected devices and information access is now facing a fallout,” said Lubna Dajani, a communications technology expert. “Major data breaches happen every week and millennials, along with the rest of the general public, have found the trust they put in government institutions and businesses to protect their digital identities are being shaken.”
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In spite of the distrust millennials expressed for the range of institutions, nearly one-third said they were open to being implanted with a digital chip that would identify them “to a range of devices” such as a car or home. Ten percent said they would welcome the prospect, and an additional 21 percent said they would be open to it if they saw a benefit. Just 14 percent said they could see the potential for the technology to be “abused by companies gathering data.”
