A16 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25 , 2021
do. “There definitely needs to be
changes or some sort of oversight
but not the government’s,” she
said. Some responsibility, they
said, falls to individuals.
“I look at [regulation] as a very
good thing, but I don’t know ex-
actly what that would look like,”
said Democrat David Noon, a his-
tory professor at the University of
Alaska Southeast who has simi-
larly lost trust in the big tech
companies, especially social me-
dia. “I think about the long his-
tory of regulation. Most of it is
government agencies trying to
monitor industries that they
don’t really know that well. And
as a result, whatever instruments
of regulation they put in place
tend to get captured by the or-
ganization being regulated.”
Nearly 8 in 10 Internet users
take at least some precautions to
limit the information that web-
sites, search engines or apps gath-
er about them, according to the
Post-Schar School poll.
A 57 percent majority say they
have changed privacy settings on
websites, such as not allowing
tracking, and half say they altered
the privacy settings on their
phone or apps. Most say they have
deleted their Web history (56 per-
cent), while nearly 4 in 10 say they
changed their browser settings
(39 percent) or used a private
browsing setting such as “incog-
nito mode” (37 percent). About 1
in 4 (26 percent) say they have
used a virtual private network —
software for creating a more pri-
vate Internet connection — to
protect their privacy.
Facebook has been plagued by
privacy issues for years, from the
Cambridge Analytica scandal to
the recent revelations by whistle-
blower Francis Haugen. Yet more
than 7 in 10 Internet users are on
Facebook, with over half saying
they use it daily.
Noon, the history professor, is
in the minority. He has actually
quit Facebook. The breaking
point came around Thanksgiving
2016, a few weeks after the elec-
tion. He was looking at the Face-
book account he’d had for nearly
10 years and saw nothing but a
toxic stew of political infighting,
splintering families and conspira-
cy theories. He decided to deacti-
vate his account and said he
hasn’t looked back.
“In my most cynical moments I
feel like at a certain point, people
in the company must have real-
ized just how corrosive the plat-
form was, not just in the U.S. but
elsewhere,” said Noon, 51.
“They’ve always seemed to be
playing catch-up. It’s a company
that responds to publicity sur-
rounding its mistakes, its blind
spots — they try to keep a lid on it
as long as they can.”
He still has a mostly unused
Instagram account, and spends
time on Twitter.
At home in Texas, Veselka tries
to have some rules to protect her
family. Her daughter isn’t allowed
to have her own tablet or unfet-
tered access to streaming sites or
other apps. And while she rarely
worries about the tech gear
around her house listening, she
does avoid microphone-equipped
devices when having private con-
versations.
“The only time I think about it
actively is when my husband and
I are having a conversation about
politics. We’re a little more liber-
tarian,” Veselka said with a laugh.
“If we’re talking about something
sketchy, lets take it outside.”
The poll was conducted by The
Post and the Schar School of Pol-
icy and Government at George
Mason University Nov. 4-22,
among a random national sample
of 1,122 adults including 1,
Internet users. Respondents were
contacted by mail through a ran-
dom sample of U.S. households
and completed the survey online
or by mailing back a question-
naire. The margin of sampling
error is plus or minus 3.5 percent-
age points for overall results, and
four points among Internet users.
Sampling, data collection and
tabulation conducted by SSRS of
Glen Mills, Pa.
[email protected]
[email protected]Scott Clement contributed to this
report.to use Facebook doesn’t mean
they like it,” said Jack Goldstone,
who directs the Center for the
Study of Social Change, Institu-
tions and Policy at the Schar
School of Policy and Government.
“It’s not unexpected that people
would continue to find ways to
interact with a program, even if
they’re deeply suspicious of its
broader social impact. That’s how
we’re wired.”
What is striking about the re-
sults of the survey, says Gold-
stone, is how distrust of Big Tech
unifies Republicans and Demo-
crats, even though they may have
different reasons for disliking the
companies and their policies.
Overall, 64 percent of Ameri-
cans say the government should
do more to regulate how Internet
companies handle privacy issues,
a sharp increase from 38 percent
who said the same in the 2012 Pew
survey. Democratic support for
the government doing more to
regulate how Internet companies
handle privacy grew from 45 per-
cent in 2012 to 82 percent this
year, while Republican support is
up from 30 percent to 53 percent,
and support from independents
is up from 38 percent to 66 per-
cent.
That’s a high percentage for
Republicans, a party traditionally
against government regulation.
In a free market — a hallmark of
Republican thinking that calls for
minimal government involve-
ment in the economy — people
can simply choose not to use a
company that they dislike. Yet few
people appear to be opting to
leave Facebook, quit TikTok,
switch from Amazon or power
down smartphones over concerns
about data privacy.
Dorsch, the Oklahoma retiree
and an independent, would like to
see the companies try to regulate
themselves, and Veselka, the Tex-
as mother, thinks that the govern-
ment doesn’t have a place trying
to create laws that specifically
control what private companiesnot helpful.
Criticisms of the data-for-us-
age trade-off have increased since
2012, when a Pew Research sur-
vey found 59 percent saying it
represented an “unjustified use of
people’s private information.” To-
day, 73 percent of Americans hold
this view, including majorities of
Americans across political and
demographic groups, according
to the Post-Schar School poll.
“They think free enterprise
means ‘I can do anything I want,
anytime I want,’ ” said Ken
Dorsch, a 76-year-old retiree in
Tulsa. “We want to make money
more than we want to be respon-
sible for what we’re doing.”
Dorsch uses Facebook to follow
the news from his church groups,
and to keep up with friends and
relatives. He has a computer, or-
ders through Amazon, uses a free
Google email account, and has
dabbled in Twitter but didn’t
quite get it. He especially hates
how many ads fill up his Google
searches, Facebook feed and even
Amazon results.
Just last week he thought about
quitting Facebook and came to
the same conclusion as many peo-
ple: It is too necessary for staying
in touch and being part of a com-
munity. Where else would he go?Looking for fixes, from
government regulation to
self-regulation
“The fact that people continuesettle Americans more. After
years of privacy experts warning
that “if it’s free, you’re the prod-
uct,” perhaps the reality of what
that really means has started to be
fully absorbed. Tech companies
have no-cost products such as
social media apps, search en-
gines, dating apps and email. In
exchange, they collect data and
feed the online marketing and
advertising industry while profit-
ing off it.
The biggest goal of collecting
data is to serve up narrowly tar-
geted ads. Two companies domi-
nate. Google earned $147 billion
in revenue from advertising in
2020, or 80 percent of its total,
while Facebook earned $84 bil-
lion in revenue from advertising,
or 98 percent of its total.
About 8 in 10 Internet users say
that tech companies do not pro-
vide enough control over how
information about their activities
are tracked and used, including
majorities across age, race, educa-
tion and partisan groups.
Targeted ads — the entire point
of all that data collection — are
widely disliked. More than 8 in 10
Internet users say they see target-
ed ads at least somewhat often.
Among those who see them,
82 percent say they are annoying
and 74 percent say they are inva-
sive. And while companies some-
times defend targeted ads as help-
ing people find products they
want, 66 percent of Internet users
who see them online say they aretheories. She thinks the compa-
nies themselves are behind this,
trying to manipulate their users
into having certain opinions and
points of view.
Still, Torrace says she’s not anti-
technology and doesn’t plan to
give any of it up. Instead, she
spends some of her time online
“trying to go to the other side,”
looking for posts a social media
algorithm might hide from her.
The key isn’t quitting technology,
but using it with eyes wide open,
she said.
Major tech companies includ-
ing Facebook and Amazon have
denied accessing microphones
without permission, and experts
say it’s likely that they instead
have enough personal data to ac-
curately predict what you’re in-
terested in.Social media companies are
trusted the least
Despite the catchall term “Big
Tech,” the biggest technology
companies are not all viewed in
the same negative light. The busi-
nesses that sell goods or services
directly to people are viewed
more favorably, like Apple and
Amazon. There’s less mystery
about how they’re making money
off of customers, and there’s not
as much of a barrier between the
organizations and the individuals
who pay them.
It’s the social media compa-
nies, where the services are of-
fered up ostensibly free, that un-like the way Facebook collects her
personal data to target ads, or the
kinds of videos YouTube offers to
her child, and she suspects that
her devices are always listening.
“We go into it knowing that we
can’t really trust them, but I don’t
think we can get around not using
it,” Veselka, 30, said of her tech-
nology. “I’ve tried giving up Face-
book for a period of time.... It’s
just not really something you can
do and still maintain a regular
social life.”
It’s the rare thing that Ameri-
cans of all ages and across the
political spectrum largely seem to
agree on: They don’t trust social
media services with their infor-
mation and they view targeted
ads as annoying and invasive,
according to a Washington Post-
Schar School poll. Many Ameri-
cans use social media — and most
use Facebook — but 64 percent
say the government should do
more to rein in big tech compa-
nies.
People are caught in thrall to
platforms and devices that in-
creasingly shape the way we com-
municate, shop, store important
information and otherwise man-
age the most fundamental parts
of our lives. With nearly 3 billion
monthly users around the world,
Facebook can seem particularly
inescapable.
Most Americans say they are
skeptical that several Internet gi-
ants will responsibly handle their
personal information and data
about their online activity. And an
overwhelming majority say they
think tech companies don’t pro-
vide people with enough control
over how their activities are
tracked and used. The survey was
conducted in November among a
random sample of 1,122 adults
nationwide.
According to the survey, 72 per-
cent of Internet users trust Face-
book “not much” or “not at all” to
responsibly handle their personal
information and data on their
Internet activity. About 6 in 10
distrust TikTok and Instagram,
while slight majorities distrust
WhatsApp and YouTube. Google,
Apple and Microsoft receive
mixed marks for trust, while
Amazon is slightly positive with
53 percent trusting the company
at least “a good amount.” (Ama-
zon founder Jeff Bezos owns The
Washington Post.)
Only 10 percent say Facebook
has a positive impact on society,
while 56 percent say it has a
negative impact and 33 percent
say its impact is neither positive
nor negative. Even among those
who use Facebook daily, more
than three times as many say the
social network has a negative
rather than a positive impact.
People think their devices are
listening
Perhaps the most alarming
pervasive suspicion is one that is
still dismissed by many experts —
and the companies themselves —
as an urban legend. About 7 in 10
Americans think their phone or
other devices are listening in on
them in ways they did not agree
to. Perhaps given the steady
drumbeat of damaging true sto-
ries that come out about the com-
panies — mishandling of personal
data, unchecked dangers for chil-
dren, contributing to the destruc-
tive spread of misinformation
and polarization — secretly acti-
vating a microphone doesn’t
seem like a big leap.
“My phone is listening,” said
Gabriela Adame Torrace without
a hint of doubt in her voice. The
46-year-old accountant recalls
telling her husband she wanted to
go to Disneyland, then opening
Facebook and seeing an ad for
Disneyland passes. “Anything
that I talk about, automatically I
know I will see those ads on
Facebook.”
Suspected Big Brother-like
eavesdropping isn’t even at the
top of her list of concerns about
the major technology companies,
though. The Southern California
resident is most worried about
how social media pushes people
into filter bubbles, where they see
and hear people who already
think like them, as well as falling
down rabbit holes of conspiracy
POLL FROM A
Survey: Americans say tech, social media are too invasive
CALLAGHAN O’HARE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
“We go into it knowing that we can’t really trust them, but I don’t think we can get around not using it,” said Mary Veselka, a mother in
Pearland, Tex., of the technology in her home. She said she tried giving up Facebook but kept it to “maintain a regular social life.”Internet users widely distrust Facebook, TikTok and
Instagram to handle personal data. Other tech
companies receive mixed marks.EMILY GUSKIN / THE WASHINGTON POSTNo
opinionFacebookMicrosoftTikTokInstagramWhatsAppYouTubeGoogleAppleAmazon72% 20 863 12 2560 19 2053 15 3253 35 1247 4842 43 1540 44 1640 53 7Trust not
much/at allTrust a great deal
or a good amountQ: How much do you trust each of the following companies or services to
responsibly handle your personal information and data on your
Internet activity?Source: Nov. 4-22, 2021, Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,058 U.S. Internet users with
an error margin of +/- 4 percentage points.Q: Just your best guess - how often do you think your phone or other tech
devices listen to you in ways you did NOT agree to?RarelyNever35%37208Note: "No opinion" not shown.EMILY GUSKIN / THE WASHINGTON POSTAbout 7 in 10 Americans say their phone or other
tech devices often listen to them in ways they do
not agree toVery oftenSomewhat oftenSource: Nov. 4-22, 2021, Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,122 U.S. adults with an error
margin of +/- 3.5 percentage points. 2012 results are from the Pew Research Center.Most say targeted ads are annoying, invasive
and not helpful
Q: Do you generally find targeted online ads...
(Among Internet users who see targeted ads) No
opinion
AnnoyingInvasiveHelpful82% Yes 14% No74 20 627 66 7EMILY GUSKIN / THE WASHINGTON POSTSource: Nov. 4-22, 2021, Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,018 U.S. Internet users who
see targeted ads with an error margin of +/- 4 percentage points.Should do more Should not get more involved2012202138%566435Note: "No opinion" not shown.Most Americans say government should do more to
regulate how Internet companies handle privacy, a
shift from 2012Q: Do you think the government should do more to regulate how Internet
companies handle privacy issues, or should the government NOT get more
involved in this?Most Americans say that tech companies' collection
of user information for advertising is unjustifiedAn unjustified use of people's private information
73%A fair exchange for the services these companies provide
26No opinion
1:Q: Email, search and social networking companies collect information from
their users to target advertisements toward them. Do you think this is...Source: Nov. 4-22, 2021, Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,122 U.S. adults with an error
margin of +/- 3.5 percentage points.
EMILY GUSKIN/THE WASHINGTON POSTAbout 8 in 10 Internet
users say tech
companies don’t
provide enough control
over how information
about their activities are
tracked and used.