Amy Harris/Invision/AP Images Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
- Survey of 2,000 Brits find a majority of 18-24-year-olds trust Amazon and PayPal ahead of banks when it comes to protecting their personal data.
- 77% of all people surveyed don't trust Facebook with their data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
LONDON - Young people in Britain are more trusting of tech giants such as Amazon and PayPal than they are of banks when it comes to personal data, according to a new survey.
A survey of 2,000 people across the UK by business intelligence group RFI found that most 18-to-24-year-olds put Amazon and PayPal above banks when asked to rank a number of organisations by how much they trust them to "hold and maintain the privacy and security of your personal information."
MasterCard and Visa also ranked above banks, although below Amazon and PayPal. The name of the banks asked about were not made public.
The findings come in the wake of serious IT problems at TSB, one of the UK's major banks. Some customers were left unable to access their accounts for weeks and several reported being given access to other people's accounts when they did manage to gain access.
77% of the UK public said they did not trust Facebook to hold their data, RFI's survey found. The survey was conducted in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that highlighted the amount of data Facebook collects on users and how advertisers use the platform.
(Despite the findings, recent data shows activity on the platform has actually increased since the scandal.)
Charles Green, CEO of RFI Group, said in a statement: "At an overall consumer level, from a trust-scale point of view,
banks are in the lead by a small margin. However, PayPal, Amazon, and the card schemes are very close behind and are winning for younger millennials.
"The threat from Facebook can most likely be discounted, however, there should be concern around what PayPal and Amazon might do. Traditional banks should be thinking specifically about what those brands have done to earn consumer trust."
Many in banking and financial services have long worried that tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook could be plotting a move into financial services and new UK laws dubbed "Open Banking" give them a potentially easier route into the system.
RFI's survey found just 16% of Brits are aware of the new "Open Banking" rules, which came into force in January, while just 3% are aware of PSD2, which is a new European regulation mandating similar changes to "Open Banking."
There are similar fears in the USA, where 73% of millennials say they would be more excited about a new financial services offering from the likes of Google, Amazon, or Paypal, than their bank.
