Research from NexGen Cloud has revealed that many Brits have big trust issues with Big Tech.
The research surveyed 2,000 British adults and found that nearly half of respondents didn’t trust large tech companies with their personal data.
A majority of 66% of those surveyed were concerned about the way in which big tech firms collected and used personal data – and only 24% of those surveyed felt that tech giants had consumer best interests at heart.
The research also indicated that many people feel as though large tech firms have too much power both within the technology sector and over consumers’ personal lives. A whopping 72% wanted to regulate tech giants more tightly.
Despite this sense of mistrust, 60% of respondents felt like they didn’t have much choice but to use technologies provided by these companies, and 36% were specifically looking to smaller competitors when buying or using technology.
“Our research results are stark and consistent – it shows that a growing number of consumers mistrust tech giants with their personal data and feel threated by the insidious control they exert over their personal lives. Regulating Big Tech companies must therefore take on a new and almost existential urgency to address this imbalance of power globally,” said Chris Starkey, Founder and Director, NexGen Cloud.
“Big Tech’s unnatural monopoly of the market and increasing civic power poses a looming threat to the core aspects of democracy, and our study highlights consumers’ vulnerability and resignation to the excessive power held by large tech corporations. Now, there is a critical need for the industry to restore consumers’ foundations of trust in technology, and this must begin by building a fairer and decentralised digital landscape”.
