User Distrust at Heart of Facebook Troubles

Satisfaction with social-networking powerhouse Facebook has slumped, according to the latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index — hitting a new record-low score in the social media category that placed it in the five lowest-scoring companies out of more than 230 surveyed. There are several immediate factors that undermine user trust:

Inconsistency. Facebook’s user interface changes constantly (think Timeline) and this inconsistency leaves users feeling like they don’t know what to expect next from the social media site. Consistency builds trust, but Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to have much vision for consistency.
Lack of Transparency. The average user has very little comfort with or knowledge about how Facebook is collecting, analyzing, using and selling their personal data. While Facebook has a range of privacy and security settings, most users still don’t comprehend the enormity of the information that Facebook collects on them. This lack of transparency leaves users with a bad taste in their mouth, like they are being cleverly deceived for the sake of profit.

Facebook is staring down some potentially unnerving obstacles when it comes to key areas of monetization and growth: public distrust and display ad apathy.

Look at these highly revealing statistics:

59% of Facebook users said that they had little to no trust in Facebook to keep their information private according to a recent AP-CNBC poll.
Despite these ongoing concerns, the number of users continues to increase. Facebook has grown to 900+ million monthly active users worldwide. This paradox (that Facebook continues to add users even though most of us don’t trust them), suggests a level of reliance bordering on addiction.
54% of Facebook users declare that they don’t trust Facebook using the platform for financial transactions like purchasing goods or services.
83% of Facebook users say they never, or rarely ever, click ads or other sponsored content when they use the site.

Facebook is facing a crisis of trust. For now, they are masking it well and continuing to grow, unless that is, if you judge their success by revenue rather than users.

John Sileo is an award-winning author and data security speaker on social media over exposure. He is CEO of The Sileo Group, which advises organizations on privacy strategy, data security and fraud prevention. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer, the FDIC, and Homeland Security. Sample his Keynote Presentation or watch him on Anderson Cooper, 60 Minutes or Fox Business. 1.800.258.8076.

Posted by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo in Digital Reputation & Trust, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Online Privacy and tagged "Identity Theft, Apathy, data, Data Security Expert, Disillusioned, Distrust, Expert, Facebook, Facebook Distrust, John Sileo, Mistrust, online privacy, Privacy, Security, Sileo, Social Media Privacy, social networking, Statistics, Trust, Users, Value.