On securing data, public trusts no one, Pew survey finds

Less than a third of Americans trust the government to secure and safeguard their data.

According to a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday, the U.S. public has little faith in the ability of the government to guard their sensitive records. The private sector didn’t fare much better.

{mosads}“For all of the 11 entities we asked about in the fall 2014 survey — from government agencies to credit card companies to social media sites — only small minorities say they are ‘very confident’ the records maintained by these organizations will remain private and secure,” Pew said.

Credit card companies won the day, with 38 percent of respondents expressing some degree of confidence the firm will keep their sensitive data locked down.

The survey was conducted around the time that the massive slew of corporate and government data breaches were reaching their apex.

Throughout the summer and fall, hacks at retailers like Home Depot and banks like JPMorgan Chase exposed hundreds of millions of consumers’ private data.

On the government side, the federal weather system, the U.S. Postal Service and contractors conducting federal background checks all lost sensitive data to cyberattacks. The White House and State Department were digitally infiltrated around this time as well.

The survey also revealed a deep mistrust of online services’ security.

Three fourths of adults said they were not confident that online advertisers were protecting the data they collect.

The public also doesn’t trust social media sites and search engine providers. Under Under 70 percent of adults were confident these companies would lock down their personal information.

Sites like Facebook and companies like Google are increasingly repositories for private data, as they expand to include messaging and document-creating features.