Americans have fallen further out of love with Big Tech, the latest Axios/Harris 100-brand reputation poll shows.

Why it matters: Even though Americans were hyper-connected to their devices throughout the pandemic, their relationship with many of the world's biggest tech firms has continued on a downward trend, suggesting that people see their products as necessary evils, Axios' Sara Fischer and Scott Rosenberg report.

Social media leaders Facebook and Twitter failed to improve their standing near the bottom of the list, despite their role in helping users stay connected through pandemic-era isolation.

• The biggest loser among tech giants was Google, which faced PR headwinds in 2020 as the government sued it for monopolistic practices.
• Amazon lost its place at the very top of the reputational roster but retained a strong positive rating.
• Apple, which spent the last year making record profits and touting its privacy protections, was the only tech giant to substantially improve its reputation score.

Overall, companies that sell products and services to businesses and individuals — like Microsoft, Apple, Sony and HP — fared much better than ad-supported social media and information tech companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit.

• Streaming tech companies like Hulu and Netflix did better than both those groups this year, but slightly worse than previous years, as streaming fatigue sets in.

How it works: The Harris poll first identifies the 100 most visible companies and then ranks them based on what respondents think of them.

• So "being in the top 100" alone doesn't mean a company is beloved. And brands near the bottom of the list have a lot of work to do on their reputations.

What to watch: Newcomers to the poll this year, like TikTok and Reddit, show that newer tech firms are becoming more visible to Americans.

Go deeper: Read the full results of our Axios/Harris 100 reputation poll and learn more about the methodology.

Apple has severed ties with recent hire Antonio García Martínez, a former Facebook employee and author of the book "Chaos Monkeys," Axios has learned, following an uproar from employees upset over García Martínez's past writings demeaning women and others.

Why it matters: Employees had circulated a petition Wednesday calling for Apple to explain its hiring of García Martínez. While petitions aren't uncommon at Google and some other companies, it is rare for Apple employees to organize publicly on any issue, let alone an individual hire.

Apple confirmed to Axios that García Martínez was no longer employed by the company and said in a statement that it has "always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace."

• The company declined further comment. García Martínez was not immediately available for comment.

Context: News broke earlier this week that Apple had hired García Martínez.

• Apple did not say what exactly García Martínez's position was, but sources said he was hired for an engineering role and started last week.
• In the petition, first reported by The Verge, employees write: "We demand an investigation into how his published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again."

In one passage from "Chaos Monkeys," García Martínez describes women in the Bay Area as "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of s--t."

• This passage was also cited online when García Martínez started writing for Wired.

Between the lines: Many, many folks at Apple were some combination of angered and appalled at the hiring, even loyalists didn't try to defend it.

Our thought bubble: This wasn't just offensive tweets or emails from the past (though those have been appearing as well), but passages from a best-selling book. One has to wonder if whoever at Apple made the hire hadn't read the book or didn't care.

President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to improve the country’s cybersecurity following a series of high-profile cyberattacks in both the public and private sectors, Axios' Sarah Mucha reports.

Why it matters: After a series of high-profile cyberattacks — from the Colonial Pipeline hack to the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange attacks — and the Biden administration is feeling pressured to act quickly to combat vulnerabilities in the country’s infrastructure.

Details: The executive order will remove barriers to increase information sharing between the government and private sector to allow IT service providers to report breaches without fear of legal consequences.

The order will also:

• Implement stronger cybersecurity standards across the federal government for agencies and contractors, including moving to secure cloud-based services and requiring two-factor authentication.
• Establish a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board, modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board, to investigate incidents.
• Create baseline security standards for any software sold to the government, including requirements that developers allow greater visibility into their security data and software creation.

"Colonial fundamentally was an IT incident, and this executive order will make IT software more secure," an administration official said.

Our thought bubble: The Biden administration has moved quickly to back a number of security measures that experts have long advocated. But the sheer volume of recent high-profile incidents suggests it wasn't fast enough.

What to watch: Executive orders like this one can be thought of as feature requests from the vast product development organization that constitutes the federal bureaucracy. Now, the question is whether that organization can deliver these changes quickly and well.

In a new show that debuted on Amazon Prime this week, venture-backed companies face a panel of potential investors — including ex-NSYNC member Lance Bass and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak — who grill them about their businesses and decide whether to cut a check.

Why it matters: "Unicorn Hunters" bills itself as bringing the craft of pre-IPO investing to the mainstream and as "a master class for people out there," Bass tells Axios. The title is a play on "unicorn" — the industry-wide nickname for startups valued at over $1 billion.

• Part of the show's pitch is "democratizing wealth creation" by making it possible for people at home to also invest in those private companies. Think "Shark Tank," except you, the viewer can also get in on the deal.

What they're saying: "If we learned anything by the Robinhood-GameStop-Reddit thing in January, it's that the masses are raising their hands and want to invest," show co-creator and panelist Moe Vela tells Axios, referring to the social-media-fueled sudden price jump and drop of the video game retailer earlier this year.

Yes, but: This opportunity will be mostly available to accredited investors (requiring $200,000 in annual income, a net worth of $1 million, or a financial professional license) given U.S. fundraising laws for private companies.

• The companies themselves are handling the investing process, not the show.
• Vela points out the show aims to make it very clear to viewers that these are risky investments and that they should make thoughtful decisions.

Our thought bubble: The show is arriving at an awkward time, in the middle of a reckoning over wealth creation, who gets to access it and how.

On Tap

• Earnings today from Airbnb and DoorDash.

Trading Places

• VMWare named Raghu Raghuram as its permanent CEO; Raghuram had been COO. Meanwhile, Zane Rowe, who had been interim CEO after Pat Gelsinger departed for Intel, will return to his prior role as CFO.

ICYMI

• A new study documents serious child safety problems on major social platforms such as Snap, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. (The Verge)
• Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that Tesla will no longer accept bitcoin as payment, citing the environmental impact of that cryptocurrency. (Axios)
• The Wall Street Journal has an interesting profile of Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the judge presiding over the Epic-Apple case. (Wall Street Journal)
• U.S. police departments are experimenting with VR for training officers. (Axios)

I'm not much of a watch person (my dad is, though), but this is one cool watch.