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For the past three years the American public has trusted Amazon and Google more than the federal government. Despite that, the federal government is suing Google and Amazon.
According to new data from the Center for Growth and Opportunity, almost half of voting Americans trust Google (42%) and Amazon (46%) with their data, while only 1 in 4 voting Americans trust the federal government (26%) with their data.
These two companies have nearly double the rates of trust compared to the federal government.
To be sure, Google and Amazon are not without fault. Amazon's marketplace includes many thousands of unsafe and counterfeit products that the company seems unable to completely tackle. Google, best known for its search engine, can make seemingly arbitrary and sudden decisions that harm small and medium-sized businesses.
Despite these faults, these companies remain immensely popular. According to SimilarWeb, 90% of searches first take place on Google. "Google" has become a verb. When it comes to Amazon, according to the most recent estimate, nearly 168 million people worldwide are Amazon Prime members, with users in the U.S. currently paying $14.99 a month or $139 annually for membership ($69 annually if you are a student). That's not even counting non-Prime Members who use Amazon for shopping, streaming TV or listening to music.
It's puzzling then that the less-trusted federal government, along with most states, are suing to transform the more-trusted Google search, to make Amazon Prime more expensive or even to break up Amazon.