• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 21, 2025

Consumers worldwide have lost trust in brands when it comes to protecting their privacy. 

Privacy fears prompted 82% to abandon brands last year, according to a new study from Thales: Consumer Trust Index.  

And why wouldn’t they be suspicious? Of the individuals polled, 19% learned that their personal data was compromised in the past year. 

Moreover, 63% feel that brands put too much onus on the consumer to protect their own data. Indeed, 86% expect some level of privacy rights with firms they interact with online. 

The sheer hassle of remembering passwords has caused 75% to favor passwordless authentication via biometric data or a PIN -- up from 72% last year.  

Which sectors are most trusted? Banking remains the top vertical in this regard, although only 32% of those ages 16-24 have faith in it, down from 44% in the prior year.  

Oddly, 42% government organizations are now more trusted, compared to 37% last time. The least trusted sector is news media, at 3%. 

All this is harming companies. Consumers list these five reasons for abandoning a brand in the past 12 months: 

• Demanding too much personal information — 32%
• Poor online support — 27%
• Concerns about how my personal information is used — 25%
• A long sign-up process — 25% 
• Website too slow — 24%

Most of us, even those in the profession, have experienced these aggravating issues. Why can’t companies get it right?

Take the challenges faced by a new banking customer.  “A conventional onboarding process would require her to visit the branch, get in a queue and wait for a long time for the bank to run its administrative processes,” the study says.

Int adds “A digital onboarding experience still requires an excessive amount of back-end processing, but hides that complexity from the consumer who can be up and running in the matter of a few clicks.”

The user can enter a mobile phone number or email address. The system does the rest, affirming identity with device intelligence, behavioral analytics, behavioral biometrics and consortium intelligence. 

Granted, consumers make take a dim view of some of these practices if they learn about them through exposes. The best policy is transparency. 

The takeaway?  “Global trust in digital services is decreasing or remaining stagnant at best, even among highly regulated industries,” says Sebastien Cano, senior vice president, cybersecurity products at Thales.

“One area that does not remain stagnant is the threat landscape. Consumers are more aware than ever before of online threats, and the consequences of their data falling into the wrong hands,” Cano adds.

On behalf of Thales, Censuswide and the Red Consultancy surveyed 14,009 consumers  in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S.