According to the Thales Consumer Digital Trust Index 2025, global confidence in digital services is slipping fast. After surveying more than 14,000 consumers across 15 countries, the findings are clear: no sector earned high trust ratings from even half its users. Most industries are seeing trust erode — or, at best, stagnate.

In an era where our lives are increasingly shaped by digital interactions, this widening trust gap isn’t just a reputational risk. It threatens brand loyalty, customer retention, and long-term business resilience.

Consumers Are Carrying the Weight

While there are arguments about the benefits of balancing security, privacy, and experience, this year’s report highlights that not everything works just as smoothly. In fact, customers are overwhelmed and feel the onus of being responsible for running the relationship with businesses.  Users are being asked to:

• Interpret complex consent forms
• Monitor for data breaches
• Guard their own privacy across platforms

This dynamic isn’t sustainable. Consumers are not security experts—and they shouldn’t have to be. It’s no surprise, then, that 63% of consumers feel brands place too much onus on them when it comes to protecting data. 82% have abandoned a brand in the last 12 months, with 31% citing over-sharing demands as the top reason.

Trust Declines Across the Board

Across all 13 surveyed sectors, trust continues to erode:

• Banking leads at 44%, though trust among Gen Z drops to just 32%
• Government services follow at 42%, marking the only sector where trust rose year-over-year (up from 37%)
• Healthcare (40%), Insurance (24%), and Education (17%) round out the top five
• At the bottom, News Media ranks last with a dismal 3% trust rating

This means that less than half of consumers trust any sector with their data—a clear indicator of deep-seated skepticism, even in highly regulated industries.

Why Trust Is Cracking

Trust is a complex outcome of multiple factors, but the cracks are becoming clear. Here is what consumers are experiencing:

• 19% have been informed that their personal data was compromised in the past year
• 10% have had financial or credit card data stolen
• 28% witnessed price fluctuations for products/services they wanted to buy
• 27% experienced downtime or slow service from brands’ websites
• 13% were kicked out of online queues during high-demand events
• 33% encountered bots that manipulated e-commerce platforms, damaging trust and experience

When digital services falter, confidence drops—and consumers may take their business elsewhere.

The Friction Problem

Digital friction—whether through clunky sign-up flows, long passwords, or poor identity experiences—is eroding trust at scale:

• 85% of consumers want the ability to sign up digitally
• 74% want the option to use their preferred identity provider (Apple, Facebook, Google, etc)
• 32% cite password resets as a primary frustration
• 18% and 17%, respectively, say creating long or complex passwords is enough to make them abandon a brand

These findings explain why 75% of consumers now demand passwordless authentication—up from 72% last year. And 48% say they would trust a brand more if it offered Passkeys, while 86% feel that multi-factor authentication (MFA) enhances trust.

In short, the more seamless the access, the stronger the trust.

Consent, Privacy, and Control

Consumers are not against sharing data, but they want transparency and control:

• 89% are willing to give consent if brands meet certain conditions
• 38% will only consent to what’s absolutely necessary
• 36% expect full control over which data is shared and when
• 86% believe they should have privacy rights from online services

What they reject is being forced into a one-size-fits-all data relationship. In fact, 37% said they felt compelled to share personal data just to access basic services, emphasizing the power imbalance.

To rebuild trust, brands need to use progressive profiling. This means collecting data slowly and clearly over time. This approach respects user autonomy and helps entities create better profiles without overwhelming customers at the start.

The Path Forward: Innovate to Earn Trust

Consumers are clear: technology can help rebuild trust—if used wisely. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say they would trust digital brands more if they adopted emerging or advanced security technologies. This means entities must stay ahead of the threat curve—not just to secure data but to demonstrate to consumers that trust and safety are priorities.

To rebuild that level of trust, businesses should follow these five steps:

1. Streamline onboarding with digital-first, user-friendly registration
2. Adopt passwordless and biometric authentication to reduce friction
3. Implement progressive profiling to gather data ethically and incrementally
4. Prioritize transparency and consent with clear privacy dashboards
5. Continuously evolve cybersecurity strategies to match the threat landscape

Trust Is Earned, Not Assumed

The message from consumers is unambiguous: businesses have a trust problem, and fixing it begins with action, not assumptions.

Trust is not a by-product of brand recognition. It must be built, maintained, and proven across every interaction. And in an era where digital loyalty is fleeting, those who invest in seamless, secure, and respectful digital experiences will be the ones to restore and retain consumer confidence.