How Data Breaches Shattered Digital Confidence
Originally published on Forbes
Written by: Raj Ananthanpillai, Trua CEO, Forbes Books Author.
I still remember the afternoon in September 2017 when news broke that Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus, had been hacked.
In an instant, the personal information of 147 million people was exposed to criminals. As an industry veteran, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Not only had I just become a statistic in that breach, but it underscored what I’d long suspected: our entire system of trust was fundamentally broken.
The institutions entrusted with safeguarding our data had failed us, yet they walked away with barely a scratch. Equifax paid fines and settlements, but its stock soon bounced back, and business marched on. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people like you and me were left freezing our credit and anxiously monitoring bank accounts for years.
Moments like that fuel my resolve that something has to change.
Erosion of Trust in Everyday Life
Each headline of a new breach or scam chips away at public confidence. By mid-2025, 26% of U.S. consumers had been victimized by identity theft in just the prior two years—a sharp rise from 18% a couple of years before. Every incident leaves real people picking up the pieces. A single parent drained by a phishing scam, a recent graduate derailed by a stolen identity, or an elderly couple now afraid to shop online.
Globally, one in three adults was hit by some form of digital fraud, with many reporting anxiety or depression afterward. The emotional and financial toll of living in a low-trust digital world is profound. We feel powerless as our personal data is misused, breached, and scattered across countless databases.
Public attitudes reflect this crisis. A recent report noted that 86% of Americans are more concerned about their data privacy and security than about the state of the economy. It’s no wonder that over half of Americans have stopped using a product or service due to privacy concerns.
In my conversations with friends and colleagues, I hear a growing weariness. People are tired of handing over the keys to their identity and just hoping companies will guard them responsibly. Trust, once lost, is hard to regain.
Trust Hits the Bottom Line
This erosion of trust doesn’t just harm individuals; it strikes at businesses and the digital economy. When people don’t trust, they pull back.
I’ve spoken to business leaders who see users opting out, withholding information, or deleting their accounts due to privacy concerns. According to Pew Research, “The public increasingly says they don’t understand what companies are doing with their data. Some 67% say they understand little to nothing about what companies are doing with their personal data.” And over half of Americans have stopped using a product or service because of privacy concerns.
Even in broader economic surveys, digital trust looms large. Trust isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s now a bottom-line issue. Platforms with poor privacy track records face user defection and public backlash, while those that prioritize data security can turn trust into a competitive advantage.
In today’s market, consumer trust is currency. Lose it, and you lose business, reputation, and loyalty almost overnight.
A New Paradigm
We are now facing a full-blown crisis of confidence in our digital lives. From massive corporate breaches to everyday scams, these cracks in the foundation threaten the services we all rely on. But I believe this crisis is also an opportunity to chart a new course. It’s clearer than ever that trust must be earned and built into our systems by design, not assumed.
As someone who has spent decades in digital identity and trust, I am convinced we need a fundamentally consumer-first approach to verification and data protection. Instead of forcing individuals to repeatedly surrender personal data for every transaction, businesses should rethink their practices and prioritize user privacy at every step.
My own journey led me to launch a new kind of solution—a privacy-centric digital credential—aimed at returning control of personal data back to the individual. When trust is user-controlled and portable, you shouldn’t have to hand over your Social Security number or sensitive info to every new app, a company providing goods and services, or an employer.
The crisis in trust can be solved, but it demands bold action. We need to hold institutions accountable and embrace technologies that let people prove who they are without exposing all their data.
By building a new trust framework that respects the individual, we can restore confidence in the digital economy. I’m optimistic that if we seize this moment, we can turn our trust crisis into a trust revolution, empowering each of us to reclaim sovereignty over our identity and finally feel secure in the digital world.