Which Companies Help Protect Your Data from the Government?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released its Third Annual Report on Online Service Providers' Privacy and Transparency Practices Regarding Government Access to User Data. The report examines "the policies of major Internet companies — including ISPs, email providers, cloud storage providers, location-based services, blogging platforms, and social networking sites — to assess whether they publicly commit to standing with users when the government seeks access to user data." Companies evaluated for the report include Tumblr, Amazon, Google, Apple, LinkedIn, Twitter, Dropbox, Microsoft, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Foursquare, MySpace, Sonic.net, SpiderOak, Verizon, Yahoo!, and WordPress.

Six criteria were utilized to assess company practices:

1. Requiring a warrant for content of communications 2. Telling users about government data requests 3. Publishing transparency reports 4. Publishing law enforcement guidelines 5. Fighting for users' privacy rights in courts 6. Fighting for users' privacy in Congress

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