This is a community @devidev, there are some people we can trust and there are some who we can't.
As for the social media platform, I see it as a genuine attempt to pay the people for their contributions in a social media.
Any company or government can now view our data, for ever. So I really try to be very cautious. And I can easily assume everyone else is too. So, people can still choose how they want to be perceived, and that means I don't know them really. I just know them the way they want themselves to be known. This isn't any different from daily interactions with people though, is it? So I trust some people I am talking to for a long while, and I also try and welcome newcomers like yourself to engage in the community.
But I can trust my government if it applies blockchain to every transaction it makes. Isn't that what everyone wants?? A transparent goverment? The right to know where their taxes are going? So I trust steemit platform when it comes to transactions, because it is a blockchain.