On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage of F8, the company's two-day long developer conference, and delivered a keynote in which he promised to make a major shift in the company's focus: to move from a platform focused on sharing everything freely with the world to locking down information. "I know we don't exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly," said Zuckerberg said during his keynote speech. "I am committed to doing this well."
He and his company will have a lot of work to do to win back the trust of users. According to data collected by workplace transparency service Blind, just 11.2 percent of people who work at technology firms trust Facebook with their data. The survey—taken from April 18 through April 25, 2019—presented more than 10,00 people with a simple, straightforward question: “Do you trust Facebook with your data?" The answer was a resounding, unambiguous "No." A whopping 88.8 percent of tech workers doubt Facebook's ability to manage their information.
That distrust registered all over the board, with employees from companies like Amazon, Google, Uber and LinkedIn—all of which have their own issues with invasive practices or have experienced some sort of significant data breach—all voicing their belief that Facebook is not a trustworthy entity for personal information.
Those figures are echoed in the general public. A HuffPost/YouGov survey conducted in December 2018 found that just 31 percent of Facebook users say they at least somewhat trust the company with their personal data. Nearly two-thirds of those questioned, 66 percent, said they don't trust Facebook very much or at all when it comes to their information.
While Facebook may not have the buy-in of the public or its biggest competitors, the company's own workers are sure sipping the Kool-Aid. Three in four Facebook employees say they trust the company with personal data. They will have to hope that means they are dedicated to doing the work that is required to win back the public trust.
Building new apps and services that have privacy as the primary aim will be a significant undertaking for a company that has been called out for playing fast and loose with personal information in the past. “I believe the future is private,” Zuckerberg said during his speech on Tuesday. Now he and his company will have to live up to those beliefs while paying for the sins of their past, including a multi-billion dollar fine for privacy violations expected to come from the Federal Trade Commission in the near future.
