American Express Takes Top ‘Trusted for Privacy’ Honor Again

In a year when credit card issuers were more unpopular than ever and growing identity theft cases were tied to credit card fraud, American Express managed to snag the “Most Trusted Company for Privacy” distinction for the fifth consecutive year.

The honor comes from Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, a research organization that focuses on privacy issues and data protection.

Following American Express in the top five were IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard and e-Bay. The rankings were based on responses from 6,627 U.S. adults who mentioned 229 companies at least twenty times each.

Among the brands that made the top twenty that weren’t there last year are Google, Weight Watchers, Walmart and AT&T. Those that dropped off included Facebook, AOL and eLoan. Facebook was noted for dealing with privacy issues in 2009 that are partly associated with its growing pains. The social media giant is up to 400 million users.

Other social media sites, particularly Twitter, have been increasingly targets of phishing attacks. Phishing is when online fraudsters send personal-sounding emails trying to get users to enter passwords into a fake log-in page. The intent is to obtain valuable personal information, such as bank account or credit card numbers.

In a key finding of Ponemon’s survey, more consumers said they feel they are losing control of personal information. Only 41 percent said they feel they are in control, down from 45 the previous year — and an overall drop from 56 percent in 2006.

Fifty-nine percent of consumers surveyed said the fear of identity theft was a major factor in “brand trust diminishment,” and 50 percent said “notice of a data breach” was a factor. Other significant threats to brand trust were “abuse of civil liberties and annoying ‘background chatter’ in public venues.”

American Express stayed atop the ranking despite credit card issuers making headlines for raising rates and fees ahead of credit card reform laws that took effect Feb. 22.

In September, American Express ranked highest in customer satisfaction among credit card issuers, according to the third annual, nationwide study by J.D. Power and Associates. The study ranked AmEx highest in overall satisfaction among 21 of the largest card issuers in the U.S.

The 2010 Most Trusted Companies for Privacy (previous year’s ranking in parenthesis):  

1 American Express (1)
2 IBM (3)
3 Johnson & Johnson (5) 
4 Hewlett Packard (6)
5 E-bay (2)
6 U.S. Postal Service (6)
7 Procter & Gamble (7)
8 Amazon (4)
8 Nationwide (9)
9 USAA (11)
10 WebMD (13)
11 Intuit (12)
12 Apple (8)
12 Disney (16)
13 Google (not in top 20)
14 Verizon (17)
15 US Bank (19)
15 Charles Schwab (10)
16 Weight Watchers (not in top 20)
17 Yahoo! (14)
18 FedEx (18)
19 Walmart (not in top 20)
20 AT&T (not in top 20)
20 Dell (20)