Tech giants continue to become larger than life. However, as companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook gain momentum, consumers remain hesitant to share their health data with them.
Rock Health, a seed fund focused on digital health startups, surveyed 4,000 U.S. adults about their use and perception of digital health. This was the fourth consecutive year the organization released its Digital Health Consumer Adoption survey.
Similar to years past, the majority of consumers (72 percent) were most comfortable sharing their health data with physicians. However, between 2017 and 2018 the four most-trusted entities — physicians, health insurance companies, pharmacies and research institutions — lost 8.8 percent of respondents willing to share data.
The 2018 breakdown is as follows:
• Physicians — 72 percent
• Health insurance companies — 49 percent
• Pharmacies — 47 percent
• Research Institutions — 35 percent
• Pharmaceutical companies — 20 percent
• Government organizations — 12 percent
• Tech companies — 11 percent
When asked to rank their confidence in these entities' data security, 80 percent of respondents felt "confident" or "somewhat confident" in their physicians. Only 31 percent of respondents reported they were "confident" or "somewhat confident" in tech companies' data security.
For the 11 percent of consumers who were willing to share their health data with tech companies, Google was the most trusted. Consumers responded that they were most willing to share data with these tech companies:
• Google — 60 percent
• Amazon — 53 percent
• Microsoft — 51 percent
• Apple — 49 percent
• Samsung — 46 percent
• Facebook — 40 percent
• IBM — 34 percent
To access the complete report, click here.