Politico survey finds 84% of EU people distrust US tech companies to handle their personal data responsibly, rising to 93% distrust for Chinese tech firms

https://www.politico.eu/article/8-in-10-europeans-dont-trust-us-chinese-firms-with-data/

20 Comments

  1. I think most people whether they’re in the EU or not, wants their personal data leaving the country.

  2. Stereo_Jungle_Child on

    Try finding anyone who has data online who believes that their data is being safely handled. Good luck.

    By now, just about everyone everywhere has had their online data hacked and stolen multiple times already no matter what country you are from, where the data is stored, or who was handling it. It’s just a part of being online now. “Online safety” is an illusion.

  3. RebelStrategist on

    ANYONE, not just EU residents, have every right to distrust US companies. Your data is all part of their bottom line profit. They would rather pay a small fine or lawsuit than give up the billions they are making on stealing, selling, harvesting, and exploiting your personal data.

  4. Loose_General4018 on

    84% distrust US tech, 93% distrust Chinese tech and yet half of Europe is scrolling Instagram on a Xiaomi phone right now. The gap between what people say and what they actually do with their data is the real story here..

  5. Necessary-Summer-348 on

    The real issue is centralized data lakes period, doesn’t matter which flag they fly. Once you’re aggregating that much PII in one place the incentives get weird and breaches become inevitable.

  6. the only differnce is that in the US it’s private companies that collect and profit off your data and then sell it to the government.

    In China it’s the government collecting the data through it’s ownership of private corps.

  7. I’m pretty confident that Americans don’t trust US tech firms either.

    Way to go big tech firms, you’re totally alienating your marketshare.

    Who would have thought that stealing all the data to feed to AI and to the government was going to upset customers?

  8. prachishah383 on

    so we have reached peak globalization? we all use the same tech and trusts none of them

  9. I’ll bet a similar number of Americans feel the same way, but no one has asked us.

  10. See?! Now US companies are going to say “At least we’re not as bad as china!” And then continue being shitty.

  11. TheCloakedRebel on

    The EU is waking up to a massive bill they aren’t ready to pay. You cannot fund a full-scale military from scratch, cut off cheap Russian energy, and move all tech production home without something breaking. For decades, Europe traded defense spending for world-class healthcare, childcare, and education. Now, that trade is over. In the name of ‘data security’ and ‘independence,’ they are effectively trading away the social programs that made European life so good. It’s a harsh reality: you can have a sovereign fortress or a welfare state, but you can no longer afford both.

  12. I worked at a company offering voice and video meetings API’s around the world. Before they got bought out, my CTO at the time rushed to me and said “fix the GDPR issue”. We were keeping all the logs in the US.

    People should not trust the US tech or any company for that matter.

  13. Is that at all surprising given US firms like Palantir are run by people with extreme elitist, religious and right wing views.

  14. I’m not sure why people would be more concerned with the Chinese having their data as opposed to Meta/Google/Palentir having their data. the US firms seem much more an immediate risk to me.