The fact that regulations like GDPR or CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) are seen to be necessary definitely demonstrates that businesses and governments have lost the public trust. Whether that loss is permanent or not depends entirely on how we choose to respond to the loss.

On the one hand, businesses can start doing the right things for the right reasons right now, and in time the public will come around (just as they did with banks after the 1929 crash, not to mention the savings and loans debacle in the 1980s). That's the safest way to regain that trust.

Less safe is for businesses to get on top of the psychology behind the public mistrust and start to manipulate the markets into trusting businesses again. This is risky, because loss of trust will be permanent if the manipulation becomes obvious to the public. And it probably would come to light in this day and age.

One thing that does need to happen is for businesses to start being more honest about their ability to protect consumer privacy. When people find their data is being streamed into other businesses or governments, they get cranky. On the other hand, if businesses stopped pretending they can fully protect personal data and if they helped the general public to understand that today's technology landscape doesn't afford anybody a true expectation of privacy, the public will find trust easier to navigate by the simple virtue of not being lied to.

Interesting question. If new technology is not tested enough then yes it can be dangerous. Is it the newness that scares people or is it the actual technology or is it a mixture of both. Change is difficult for most people. With the latest technology and not knowing who has access to all of the data that is where I get nervous - who is using it and how are they using it.

Masarrat A Shah I'm not sure your assertions are entirely accurate. Has the public, enmasse, really lost trust? You'd think if that was true then a lot more people would taking much more strong action. Or perhaps the real issue is that trust is not necessary. Afterall, how many people trust their banks, or their politicians, yet we continue to surrender ourselves to their domination.

I don't think technology, per se, is the issue here, I think it is more about the breakdown of social values. Technology, for the most part, on its own is neither good nor bad. That moral judgement applies when we consider how the technology is being used and compare that to the values we purport to uphold. We could readily get the tech companies to stop sharing our data but, then we would have to be prepared to pay for all the benefits we currently get from them in exchange for surrendering our data. That sort of change, as Cristen Taylor, MBA pointed out, is really, really, hard.

I don't think Apple has ever been any better than any other company in this space, they are just better at distracting their customers from these issues. Similarly, the difference between China and the USA is that China tell us they are spying while the USA lie through their teeth while they are doing it.

Our choice is to live in fear, or accept the modus operandi and live with it, or choose a better model based on the values we hold most dear and then insist on regulatory and business changes to enforce that model. This is the tension between social values and the American free-to-make-a-profit-at-any-cost model. I want the former to rule but, experience says the latter will continue to win out because people in power are motivated more by greed and self-interest than social good.

I would argue that assumptions claiming "everyone" is using new technology for monetary gains or for illicit and uncouth means is a broad overstatement of a fraction of use cases. New technologies are spawned from creative solutions to problems or challenges people face. For the most part new tech advances are driven by entrepreneurial minded people with a sincere desire to help others.
Where I do agree with your concern relating to new technology's misuse is in the breadth of data collection and the lack of true understanding of these collection, storage and sharing practices. Some national and international legislation such as GDPR have helped to bring awareness and corporate accountability to the industry it is insufficient for true protection. There is a dire and ever increasing need for both consumer education and corporate data accountability legislation.
In the immediate future, companies that are bringing new tech to the market can benefit by designing the product and their business to specifically address data security, transparency and protection assurances. These would be viewed by consumers as value add, trust enhancements or differentiation in crowded fields.

New technologies, in my opinion, if designed with privacy by default and by design, will reduce new risks to that technology. The push to put new products into market without security is how and why we have catastrophic cyber events.
The simplicity of introducing privacy and data protection in the SLDC process will enhance and enforce the power of the new technologies.