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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California has sought to determine through its annual "Who Has Your Back" report, on how good technology companies are at keeping users' data from government surveillance.

While privacy is now a major issue for millions of people as technology becomes more advance, with the evolution of the smartphone and mobile technologies, capable of minute by minute tracking, even to the point of tracking a person's location.

The EFF's report released on July 10, evaluated 26 tech companies to find out how well they protect their users, and what they've put in place to escape from government's prying eyes.

Using some major criteria, the EFF ranked the companies on best practices for privacy: Whether they inform users when the government request their data, if any promise not to sell users' data, if they stood up to gag orders and if they supported reforming the National Security Agency's Section 702 surveillance program.

Microsoft, Google and Facebook lost a mark for abiding by gag orders, while Apple lost one over its stance on the NSA's Section 702 surveillance program.

In all, only nine companies received 5 gold stars for all five criteria: Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr and WordPress. Amazon, the online retail giant, scored the lowest with only two stars, one for following best practices and another for its stance on the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, all the major mobile carriers on the list ranked low, with one star for T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T for following industry standards for privacy. See the full report here.

How Safe are your Personal Data with Online Technology companies?



The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California has sought to determine through its annual "Who Has Your Back" report, on how good technology companies are at keeping users' data from government surveillance.

While privacy is now a major issue for millions of people as technology becomes more advance, with the evolution of the smartphone and mobile technologies, capable of minute by minute tracking, even to the point of tracking a person's location.

The EFF's report released on July 10, evaluated 26 tech companies to find out how well they protect their users, and what they've put in place to escape from government's prying eyes.

Using some major criteria, the EFF ranked the companies on best practices for privacy: Whether they inform users when the government request their data, if any promise not to sell users' data, if they stood up to gag orders and if they supported reforming the National Security Agency's Section 702 surveillance program.

Microsoft, Google and Facebook lost a mark for abiding by gag orders, while Apple lost one over its stance on the NSA's Section 702 surveillance program.

In all, only nine companies received 5 gold stars for all five criteria: Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr and WordPress. Amazon, the online retail giant, scored the lowest with only two stars, one for following best practices and another for its stance on the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, all the major mobile carriers on the list ranked low, with one star for T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T for following industry standards for privacy. See the full report here.
Privacy