Survey: Europeans distrust tech firms
A survey of 6,698 Europeans found 84% distrust US tech firms, 93% distrust Chinese firms, 51% distrust European firms, and only 45% trust their own governments, signalling widespread scepticism about digital actors. The findings were published as part of a social‑media summary of the poll results. (x.com)
A new survey across six European Union countries found deep distrust of tech companies that handle personal data, with American and Chinese firms facing the sharpest skepticism. (politico.eu) The poll was conducted by Cluster17 for POLITICO and beBartlet from March 13 to March 21, 2026, and covered 6,698 adults in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. It found 84 percent distrust American tech firms with their data and 93 percent distrust Chinese firms. (politico.eu) Trust was higher for European companies, but still narrow: 51 percent said they trust homegrown tech firms with personal data. Only 45 percent said they trust their own national government with that information. (politico.eu) The country splits were steep. German respondents were the most mistrustful, with 91 percent distrusting American firms and 98 percent distrusting Chinese firms, while Poland showed lower distrust of American companies than the other five countries. (politico.eu) The numbers land as Brussels keeps tightening digital rules. The Digital Services Act has applied across the European Union since February 17, 2024, and the Digital Markets Act is the bloc’s law for making digital markets “fairer and more contestable.” (cnmc.es) (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) Europe has also pushed new rules on industrial and consumer data. The European Commission said the Data Act entered into force on January 11, 2024, with the law designed to expand access to data while keeping sharing, storage and processing under European rules. (commission.europa.eu) That regulatory push sits alongside a broader campaign for “digital sovereignty,” a term European policymakers use for reducing dependence on foreign platforms, cloud providers and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The EuroStack initiative says it wants Europe to build more of its own digital infrastructure, from connectivity to cloud computing and artificial intelligence. (eurostack.eu) (bertelsmann-stiftung.de) The survey does not show why each respondent answered the way they did, but it does show that distrust reaches beyond Silicon Valley and Beijing. Even Europe’s own tech firms and governments failed to win majority confidence from a large share of the people asked. (politico.eu)
