Why Major Tech Companies Are Getting Much Better About Privacy

 

Why Major Tech Companies Are Getting Much Better About Privacy

Whatever you think of Edward Snowden and his revelations approximately the National Security Agency’s alleged monitoring of the Internet, one issue is past debate: His disclosures have ignited a international conversation approximately privateness within the online age. And a brand new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation shows that he spurred techsupportreviews   the tech industry to take newly competitive measures to defend their users against irrelevant government intrusions.

“Who Has Your Back?” charges 26 U.S.-primarily based tech organizations on six factors:

Whether they require a warrant earlier than they’ll release person content material;

Whether they tell customers of government statistics requests;

Whether they publish transparency reports;

Whether they put up regulation enforcement suggestions;

Whether they combat for customers’ privateness rights in court;

Whether they combat for users’ privacy rights earlier than Congress.

A employer which the EFF concluded did all the above might get a six-megastar score. Eight companies achieved that, such as giants along with Apple. Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter. They outnumbered the laggards, which include Amazon and AT&T ( stars apiece) and Snapchat (one megastar).

The EFF has been publishing this file for the reason that 2011, and this is the primary 12 months that analyzing it would depart you feeling guardedly upbeat as opposed to depressed. Last yr, as an instance, nearby ISP Sonic.Internet and Twitter have been the simplest organizations to get ideal six-famous person rankings, and Apple and Yahoo most effective got one famous person apiece. In 2012, the record worried a easier score, and simplest Sonic.Net were given all four stars. And in 2011, no corporation were given four stars and handiest Google managed not to look dismal.

The EFF’s evaluation of its statistics notes the turnaround and credit Snowden for nudging the industry within the proper route:

This yr, we noticed foremost enhancements in industry requirements for informing customers approximately government statistics requests, publishing transparency reports, and fighting for the consumer in Congress. For the primary time in our four years of Who Has Your Back reports, every organization we reviewed earned credit score in at the least one class. This is a substantial improvement over our unique report in 2011, when neither Comcast, Myspace, Skype, nor Verizon received any stars.

These changes in policy had been possibly a reaction to the releases of the ultimate 12 months, which time and again pointed to a near dating between tech companies and the National Security Agency. Tech companies have had to paintings to regain the consider of customers concerned that the US authorities turned into accessing data they stored inside the cloud. This seems to be one of the legacies of the Snowden disclosures: the new transparency around mass surveillance has induced full-size policy reforms by way of essential tech agencies.

There’s nonetheless plenty of fodder for situation inside the file. Why, as an example, do all of the old-school communications behemoths on it–AT&T, Comcast and Verizon–appearance a lot worse than many more youthful organizations? And this particular take a look at covers most effective protection from governmental snooping; you may applaud Google and Facebook for his or her high rankings right here while still having questions on what they’re doing together with your data for purposes inclusive of concentrated on marketing.

Still, when Snowden blew his whistle, severa tech executives expressed outrage over what he revealed and said they’d put new measures in place to shield their customers. It’s suitable to get this confirmation from the tough-nosed privacy advocates on the EFF that so a lot of them lived as much as their phrase–and I’m already curious what next yr’s file will appear to be.

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