Report: 54% of social media users don’t think their info is safe

Consumer trust in social media companies is dwindling fast, with more than half (54%) reporting they don’t trust these companies to keep their personal information secure, according to a recent survey from Callsign, the digital trust pioneer.

As consumers drown in messages from fraudsters on a variety of platforms, many no longer trust the technology and processes designed to protect them. Whether or not the companies are directly to blame matters little. Once a scam has occurred, 46% no longer trust the company that the fraudster impersonated to keep their personal information secure.

Almost half (49%) of global consumers are not comfortable sharing data with social media companies, and 33% say they trust social media companies less as a result of being scammed. Apart from social media companies, 51% of global consumers don’t trust their mobile network provider to keep their personal information secure, and 45% don’t trust their bank to keep their data secure.

With nearly half (40%) of respondents reporting social media companies should be responsible for protecting them against scams, companies should be rethinking how to stop the scammers from ever infiltrating the platforms and accessing their data. While current approaches actively identify fraud, many stolen credentials can look like genuine users. Over a third (38%) of consumers think users should have to prove who they are when logging into a platform.

By layering behavioral biometrics over threat detection, device, and location data, users can be personally recognized with 99.999% accuracy using a simple swipe of a phone, typing pressure, or mouse movements/device angles. This allows companies to eliminate any single point of failure in the authentication process and achieve two-factor authentication with minimal friction.

Opinium conducted the findings in June 2021 from global research of 9,568 adults.

Read the full report by Callsign.