The debate surrounding the regulation and impact of digital platforms in Brazil has become intense and complex, yet it is still often guided by vague perceptions, isolated studies, and fragmented metrics.
To fill this gap and replace assumptions with evidence, we present the Reglab Trust & Safety Index in the Digital Economy.
This is an unprecedented applied research initiative designed to systematically measure Brazilians’ perceptions of 24 digital platforms, divided into five essential categories: Social Media, Streaming, On-Demand Platforms, AI Chatbots, and Digital Government.
Based on a nationwide panel of 1,100 respondents, the study evaluates each service on a standardized scale from 0 to 100 across four fundamental dimensions: Overall Trust, Information Integrity, Data Security, and Teen Protection.
This rigorous methodology not only allows for a comparison between different market sectors but also tracks the historical evolution of the population’s online trust through a continuous and replicable method.
The inaugural publication, “Report Zero” (1st Quarter of 2026), establishes the baseline for the ongoing monitoring of future editions.
Key Findings
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Generation Z’s Skepticism: Young people from Generation Z (18 to 24 years old) are more distrustful and skeptical of the internet than Millennial adults (25 to 34 years old), showing lower levels of trust across all analyzed dimensions.
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Data Security as a “Luxury Item”: Class A (the highest income bracket) feels significantly safer (14% above average) than Classes C, D, and E. This data indicates that digital literacy, access to better devices, and technical support grant the elite a level of control over their online lives that lower classes lack.
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The Weight of Gender and Urban Risk: Men and women trust the internet similarly in general, with exceptions linked to structural risk. Women trust ride-hailing and transport apps much less (a 5.2% drop), incorporating the fear of physical violence into their evaluation of the digital service. They also demand greater responsibility from platforms in preventing harm to teenagers.
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Digital Government and Politics: When evaluating public apps like Gov.br and Meu SUS Digital, trust in information integrity drops in the South and Midwest regions. This shows that government tools are not viewed neutrally; the user’s technical perception blends with their political trust in institutions.
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The Artificial Intelligence Divide: Services like YouTube and Instagram have near-universal awareness in Brazil (above 97%). However, advanced Artificial Intelligence tools, such as Claude and Perplexity, suffer a sharp drop in popularity among classes C, D, and E, highlighting a new frontier of inequality in technology access.
Access the full report to discover how Brazilians truly evaluate the safety of the platforms they use every day.