With lawmakers, presidents, advocates and venture capitalists lining up to criticize the tech industry’s missteps in the last couple years, you’d think that’d be enough. But no: Even the tech industry’s own employees are fed up. A new survey of 1,500 respondents from the Edelman Trust Barometer conducted around California in January found the endless string of scandals that have hit tech giants like Facebook, Google and Uber have taken their toll. More than half of tech industry employees now say that their data is shared too much and that companies have failed to protect our data. Edelman’s surveys also found falling trust in the tech industry to do the right thing. Now, surveys show, people have more faith in marijuana growers and dispensaries than they do social media companies. It’s no surprise then that 59 percent of respondents say the tech industry should be more regulated than it is now, up from 46 percent last year. The results are the latest sign of how far the tech industry’s star has fallen in recent years. That’s in part because its largest companies played central roles in social and political upheaval around the world. There’s Russian election interference, propaganda that inspired war crimes, sexual harassment and one privacy breach after another, and that’s just a start. The tech industry has also largely failed to move the needle on diversity efforts, after acknowledging its primarily white and male leadership and workforce need changing. “There’s a growing continuousness among tech workers,” said Ravi Moorthy, managing director… [Read full story]
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