Main image of article Survey Results: You Really Do Not Trust Facebook at All

Last week, we asked whether you trust Facebook, and the results leave absolutely no doubt: You do not trust the social media giant at all.

In fact, it’s not even close; in response to the question ("Do you trust Facebook?"), a full 86 percent answered “no." Here are all four potential answers, just for a bit of context:

  • No.
  • I don’t like Facebook, but I’m not sure I have trust issues.
  • Facebook worries me, but I have faith it’ll turn itself around.
  • Yes.

And the results:

Perhaps the most interesting part: The 14 percent who just can't quit the social network, despite the company's ongoing missteps and follies. This group was almost evenly split between the three 'yes,' 'maybe,' and 'kind of' categories. This suggests developers and engineers fall in one of two camps: the ‘I hate Facebook’ crowd, and the ‘I’m not sure’/'yes' crowd. Though 4.5 percent of respondents say they trust Facebook, this group was no larger than those who are worried by the company. That’s just not a positive sign.

And who can blame anyone for losing faith in the social platform? As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shifts the official narrative toward private messaging, the news feed remains a playground for those looking to spread misinformation. A hefty fine may not be enough to dissuade Zuckerberg and friends from doing the wrong things, either; the Facebook business model is built atop strip-mining your activity for data.

When we evaluate this survey alongside others, it’s clear that tech pros have a dim view of the company. Earlier this year, we asked tech pros if large companies such as Facebook should be split up: 24.2 percent said no, but 44.2 percent said all large tech companies should be broken down into smaller entities. (We narrowed that survey's scope to three companies in particular – Amazon, Google, and Facebook – because those are the three most obvious bad actors in tech right now.)

The survey allowed tech pros to suggest which major tech company should be broken up, if only one could be; Facebook ranked highest in that category. In other words, most of you see Facebook as the actor in the tech ecosystem that cannot be trusted, and should be first in line to be split up.