For the first time in three years, Apple, which is no longer the world's most valuable firm, has not been ranked among the top 20 most trusted companies for privacy.
According to the Ponemon Institute's 2012 Most Trusted Companies list, the company dropped by six spots to settle for the 21st position. The iPhone maker was once listed in the top ten most trusted companies. Google, meanwhile, dropped from a previous high of 10th place to 23rd.
The annual study asked participants to name which companies they deemed to be most trustworthy in regards to protecting the privacy of its customers/users' personal information.
Apple were ranked as the eighth most trusted company on the list back in 2009. In 2010, though, it dropped to 12th place and dropped by a further two places in 2011. Topping the list of most trusted companies includes American Express, Hewlett Packard, Amazon, IBM and the U.S. Postal Service.
During 2011, Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to have "grilled" Path co-founder Dave Morin after it was revealed that the app was uploading users' address books without their permission. Following the incident, the former implemented revised privacy protection rules, which required developers to obtain explicit user permission before an app could access contact information.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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unksol Wait, iOS didn't have permissions to access contacts till 2011?!?!?! What the.....?!?!?Reply -
redgarl American Express, Fedex...?!!!!!Reply
Two of the worst company ever... same as UPS, these are professional thieves! -
google? seriously? i dont care if HP is trustworthy because they make such crap products i would own one anywayReply
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godfather666 Amazon, IBM, VISA and Google would top my list.Reply
Even then I am starting to have concerns about Google.
The word "trust" is kind of vague anyway. I buy/use products from most of these companies, so I must trust them all to a certain extent. -
alidan redgarlAmerican Express, Fedex...?!!!!!Two of the worst company ever... same as UPS, these are professional thieves!FedEx annoys me with how they pass off their work to USPSReply
UPS I have no problem with, and actually gone packages earlier than I was supposed to.
But why is American Express number one, and it's the one credit card I've never seen use. -
dgingeri I notice that US Bank is the only full bank in the top 20. (I happen to bank there.) They also happen to be the only big bank with a right leaning political stance. All the others are heavily left leaning.Reply