Eight out of ten Swiss complain about lack of transparency from Google, WhatsApp or Apple

Seven out of ten Swiss (69%) are concerned that the aforementioned internet companies do not handle their data carefully enough. And while 89% of Swiss people want to continue using the services, they complain that the providers seem intransparent and unpredictable. These are the key findings of an online survey conducted by global brand consultancy Prophet on the topic of "More benefits or more fear: How important are the digital services of Google, WhatsApp or Apple to you?", which surveyed 250 adults in Switzerland in January of this year.

The global market dominance of the three US companies is also a cause for concern for many Swiss. For example, 59% of respondents expressed their fear of a global network monopoly by the American market leaders, which could stifle competitors and thus competition. As many as 37% of Swiss respondents try to do without the services of Google, WhatsApp or Apple more often because of their concerns.

"If a brand or internet service such as WhatsApp, Google or Apple wants to remain successful and sustainable in the long term, it must take its users' desire for transparency and predictability seriously," says Zurich-based Prophet Partner Jan Döring, assessing the results of the survey. Corporate brand strategists should not rely on their brand remaining so relevant that people would not want to live without it. As soon as the brand becomes less relevant to users, fears of the providers' lack of transparency come to the fore again and users feel that this brand becomes even more unpredictable and less trustworthy for them, says Döring. They would then look for alternatives and possibly switch services.

The global management consultancy Prophet recently published the results of the Prophet Brand Relevance Index the first brand ranking to assess brand relevance from a consumer perspective. Around 45,000 consumers in Germany, the USA, the UK and China were surveyed on over 250 brands.