Every step you take, they'll be watching you

View this email in your browser.   

Welcome to a free preview of Fortune Analytics. Fortune Analytics is a weekly newsletter that shares research insights on the biggest topics in business. Our associate data editor Lance Lambert crunches the numbers from exclusive surveys and proprietary data.

This newsletter is a benefit of a Fortune Premium subscription. To continue receiving this exclusive email every week, plus sophisticated context about what the C-suite is thinking and in-depth industry analysis, subscribe to Fortune today. Thank you for supporting our journalism.

Here are some surveys we’ve already done of tens of thousands of American consumers, executives, and investors:

• Why Uber is so hungry to double down on the unprofitable business of food delivery 
• 59% of CEOs implemented hiring freezes during the pandemic
• Are Americans ready for the feds to break up Big Tech?

In this preview, we’re talking Big Tech & personal data.

Do you trust Big Tech with your personal health-care data?

I got my first Fitbit in the spring of 2016 and almost immediately was hooked. The weekly step challenges brought out my competitive side, and the spiking heart rate the app showed after a night out drinking was illuminating. Scrolling through the app now, I can see my life told by the minute over the past four years. 

All my personal health data, along with that of millions of other Americans, could soon be in the hands of Google once its $2.1 billion purchase of Fitbit is completed. Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all rushing to disrupt the $3.6 trillion U.S. health-care market. Jeff Bezos is even piloting a virtual medical clinic (Amazon Care) for his company's Seattle employees. 

But are Americans ready to share their personal health data to Big Tech? And which tech giant is most likely to disrupt the industry?

To find out, Fortune and SurveyMonkey polled 1,276 U.S. adults between June 25 and 26.*

Here's what we found.

The numbers to know 

The big picture

• The American public doesn't really trust tech giants. Amazon and Apple receive the highest levels of trust (40%)—pretty underwhelming for companies that interact with most of the country every week. And when asked specifically about health-care information, 7 in 10 of people are untrusting of all the tech giants. That could create a roadblock for them as they ramp up their health-care businesses. 

• Jeff Bezos is the public's bet on who is going to shake up the nation's health-care system. Among the U.S. public, 85% view Amazon favorably. And when asked to pick who will be the top health-care disruptor, the public sides with the Seattle-based e-commerce and data giant. 

A few deeper takeaways 

Just 31% of U.S. adults trust Apple with their personal health information. And that is actually the highest level of trust for Big Tech. 8 in 10 U.S. adults are untrusting of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft with their health data. 

The customers of Apple and Amazon both lean more affluent. But Americans polled in the highest income bracket trust Amazon and Apple the least. Meanwhile, only 22% of Amazon Prime subscribers trust Amazon with their health data—that's barely higher than the response from non-Amazon Prime users (16%). 

For health care to work, patients need to trust their medical providers. This lack of trust could be a bigger challenge for Big Tech than they'd like to see.

The Apple Watch and Health app are helping their parent company make inroads into health-care data. As are Azure and Microsoft Genomics for Microsoft, and Verily and Google Health for Alphabet/Google.

But it's Amazon that the public sees as the most likely to disrupt the health-care industry, with 30% of respondents picking the Seattle-based firm. The least likely? Just 11% of U.S. adults say Microsoft is likely to be the top health-care disruptor.  

Why Amazon? "Reliable, fast, fewer scandals," says Danielle Abril, my Fortune colleague who covers tech. 

However, 27% of U.S. don't see any of the Big Tech firms upheaving health care. 

A close engineering friend of mine went to work for Uber's self-driving unit in Pittsburgh back in the fall of 2016. That was almost four years ago, and it's still anyone's guess of when we'll get a self-driving taxi service. 

But the general public, and a majority of all age groups, sees a U.S. tech firm achieving it within give years.

The question is, who will get it done? Tesla, Alphabet (Waymo), Uber are all testing self-driving cars on city streets. But that field might get a new competitor: Last month, Amazon dropped more than $1 billion to buy Zoox, an autonomous-vehicle firm. 

It's yet another example of how Americans expect Big Tech to disrupt their lives.

Thanks for reading Fortune Analytics.

If you're a Fortune Premium subscriber, thank you for supporting our journalism.

Did someone share this with you? Sign up here. 

To view all of Fortune's newsletters on the latest in business, go here.