Yet for the , has been voted the most trusted company for protecting consumer privacy in a poll of about 6,500 consumers conducted by privacy think-tank the .

The survey asked consumers to list up to five companies that they trusted the most for honoring privacy and data protection commitments, and as many as five companies they trusted the least. Survey participants were asked to rank their choices based on their perception of how a company might be collecting, using, protecting and sharing personal information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers and other data.

To arrive at the final rankings, Ponemon considered the total number of times a company was ranked first for privacy as well as the total number of overall positive and negative mentions a company received in the survey.

American Express topped the from those surveyed. Others making the Top 10 list included IBM, Amazon, eBay, Johnson & Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble.

Search giant Google Inc., which was ranked 10th on the list last year, failed to make the cut this time around. Social networking site made its first appearance .