AI and more drive soaring US technophobia — Congress, corporations must act

Chuck Schumer speaks at a press conference during a bipartisan AI Insight Forum in September. REUTERS

In a 1990 Harris Poll study of American opinion, 79% of respondents said they were concerned about threats to personal privacy.

The big issue back then? Caller ID.

When we recently posed that same question, 82% said the same — a modest 3% increase.

Today, however, a whopping 74% of Americans say technology is “almost out of control” — up from 45% in 1990.

What’s changed? The steady rise of the Internet, social media and now artificial intelligence.

Formerly novelties, mobile phones and personal computers have become ubiquitous.

Together with AI, they create an environment defined by devices and often guided by information that tech corporations quietly collect from us.

Once the purview of imaginative pop culture (cue “Metropolis,” “Blade Runner,” “The Matrix”), tech worries are now a hot topic in households across America — and on Capitol Hill.

Public officials are sensing concerns Harris has documented: Nearly 80% of our respondents say they feel like they’ve lost control over how their personal information is circulated and used — up from 71% in 1990.

That number is 85% for baby boomers, the generation who have had the most exposure to evolving technology over the last 30 years.

Driving the feelings of lost control are increasingly capable and difficult-to-assess technologies.

A full 82% of our respondents agree AI development is a threat to people’s data privacy as well.

Other concerns are fueled by breathless press reports that make it seem as if AI might gobble up our jobs while giving students and others tools that make them seem far more intelligent and productive.

Add the fact that we may be unable to determine what is machine-made and what comes from human beings, and the effect of this tech is dizzying, if not fearsome.

Amid the fear, Americans seem to trust legacy institutions more than they used to: The share of people who said they have low amounts of trust in credit bureaus, for example, has halved, from 39% to 18%, while the number reporting high trust has almost doubled, from 17% to 32%.

This change reflects the fact that credit-bureau information is easier to access for Americans to track their scores.

Trust in many other legacy institutions — even the IRS — shows similar gains.

Meanwhile, our new survey found Americans rank social-media companies, search engines and generative AI dead last in terms of trust — well below financial institutions and health-insurance companies.

This makes sense because we all know banks and health insurers are subject to reliable regulation while social media and AI operate in a Wild West environment where pretty much anything goes.

Much of the unease comes from the unknown — the sense that tech companies are always lurking, collecting and disseminating consumers’ personal information without their knowledge or consent.

Consumers say they’re more concerned about implications for their data’s safety than their personal safety — fearing they won’t discover their data are being misused or identity stolen until the damage has been done.

As good screenwriters have long known: The dangers you can’t see can be the scariest of all.

So where is technophobia headed?

It depends on outcomes in corporate boardrooms and Congress.

In the short term, the onus is on tech companies to better explain their products and make clear their commitments to privacy.

Companies like Apple and Google can’t just churn out products that serve as “tracking devices”; they need to add value to the consumers who trust them, rather than exploiting their technological usage for all-too-lucrative data collection.

Customers are reassured, for instance, when the likes of Apple regularly announce new security features, such as Safari Private Browsing, Communication Safety and Lockdown Mode.

Responding to consumer concerns, companies must realize a commitment to privacy isn’t fleeting; it needs to be stated, restated and shown publicly on an ongoing basis.

In the long run, however, enacting data-privacy legislation nationally might also help keep our fears fueled by entertainment — not by reality.

Eleven states, including California, Texas and Virginia, have comprehensive data-privacy laws in place, with the protection of biometric identifiers and health data often addressed.

This year, Colorado officially affirmed five key rights for the state’s consumers: the right to access, right to correction, right to delete, right to data portability and right to opt out.

The federal government can look to these 11 states for inspiration, implementing what works and ignoring what doesn’t.

Rather than a patchwork approach to privacy, a more comprehensive framework is worth considering, so that private companies are incentivized to follow suit.

In today’s America, technophobia is all too real, but it can be used for productive ends.

If business leaders and policymakers address and mitigate our fears adequately, perhaps we can all go back to watching “The Matrix” in relative peace — no strings attached.

Will Johnson serves as CEO of The Harris Poll, one of the world’s leading public-opinion, market-research and strategy firms.