Tech Trust Index shows consumers trust Google and Amazon but not Sprint and AOL | Hacker News Reader

Tech Trust Index shows consumers trust Google and Amazon but not Sprint and AOL

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15 pointsawenger7 comments

Trust as in trust what they're going to do with it. Google and Amazon are very up front about it. I trust I have a pretty good idea what they do with my data. And I'm pretty happy with it. Amazon knows I own a table saw capable of holding a 10 inch blade with a 5/8ths hole and I'm pretty happy with that and I sincerely hope they target some advertising for a nice 80 or more tooth plywood blade in my direction.

Apparently almost no one trusts snapchat to do what they claim. You delete this? Really? Somebody help me, do I have "gullible" sharpie'd on my forehead today? Maybe 90% of the population and I are wrong and they actually do what they claim, but...

Don't read it as "I trust you're doing the right thing" but "I trust them to do what they say they'll do".

Stupid user anedote, but I am so infuriated with Sprint; Long story short: I went to Hong Kong and ran up several hundred in charges. When I got back, I hit some "spending limit" on my account and they shut me off.

I called, and found out it was due to the intl charges which were $366.12. I paid it off immediately, and then my account was reactivated.

My account was just cut-off again today.

I called to find-out WTF!!!

Turned out that they didnt use the 366.12 for the international charges - instead, they paid off my regular monthly bill and then left the intl charges as "past due" and when my next bill cycle came, it put me over that spending limit again!!

GOD DAMMIT!

I'm surprised. After all the user rights and privacy issues pouring in this year - Google is most trusted. Perhaps, it's the lesser of evil.

If I were to choose from the list, it would be one single company - Mozilla.

Although to be fair, the index doesn't really show that consumers trust Google and Amazon. It just shows that they trust Google and Amazon more than the others.

It seems pretty obvious from this that consumers don't understand that when they are not paying for the product, they are the product themselves. It's also clear that this graph would look vastly different if given to a HN-only crowd.

Saying they "don't understand" is really condescending, especially given that "you are the product" sounds more like a political slogan than anything. It's more accurate to just call it a two-sided market.

Realistically, I think most people just don't care very much about targeted advertising.

Broadcast TV is free while cable channels cost money, yet both of them give you ads. A paid subscription to the New York Times or Wall Street Journal will give you more ads than my local free newspaper. The free community production of Twelfth Night in the park had less product placement than any film at the local cineplex, despite the high ticket prices.

Consumers are aware that they are ALWAYS the product. They're just upset that some people think that they need to pay for that "privilege".

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