Poll casts doubt over Americans’ trust in Facebook
Less than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey US privacy laws as the social network faces growing government scrutiny and tries to repair its reputation
San Francisco/London — Opinion polls published on Sunday in the US and Germany cast doubt over the level of trust people have in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran advertisements in British and US newspapers apologising to users. Less than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey US privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germany’s largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60% of Germans feared that Facebook and other social networks were having a negative effect on democracy. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for "a breach of trust" in advertisements placed in papers including the Observer in Britain and the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. "We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it," said the advertisement, which appeared in plain text on a white background with a tiny Facebook logo. The world’s largest social media network i...
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