EFF: Trust Twitter — Not Apple Or Verizon — To Protect Your Privacy 75
tdog17 writes "Verizon and MySpace scored a zero out of a possible six stars in a test of how far 18 technology service providers will go to protect user data from government data demands. Twitter and Internet service provider Sonic.net scored a perfect six in the third annual Electronic Frontier Foundation 'Who Has Your Back?' report. Apple, AT&T and Yahoo ranked near the bottom, each scoring just one star. 'While we are pleased by the strides these companies have made over the past couple years, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Amazon holds huge quantities of information as part of its cloud computing services and retail operations, yet does not promise to inform users when their data is sought by the government, produce annual transparency reports, or publish a law enforcement guide. Facebook has yet to publish a transparency report. Yahoo! has a public record of standing up for user privacy in courts, but it hasn't earned recognition in any of our other categories. Apple and AT&T are members of the Digital Due Process coalition, but don’t observe any of the other best practices we’re measuring. ... We remain disappointed by the overall poor showing of ISPs like AT&T and Verizon in our best practice categories.'"
the EFF has no idea (Score:5, Insightful)
The EFF ranks these companies based on what they say they do for privacy. Nobody knows what they actually do. For all we know, Twitter may be an FBI/CIA front, or bound by some gag order. You can't trust online providers at all, and any use of an online service is a calculated risk, trading some privacy for some utility. Publishing this kind of nonsense, the EFF does more harm than good, by giving users a false sense of privacy and security.
Not who to trust (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't who to trust, this is who is the least worst when it comes to handing over your information to the government or various corporate interests using the government as their proxy (RIAA, etc.).
Nothing in this report accounts for how the companies themselves treat your private data, just how they respond to requests from law enforcement.
i don't trust any part of the internet (Score:4, Insightful)
That doesn't mean "Trust Twitter" (Score:5, Insightful)
That means "Trust Apple and Verizon less than you would trust Twitter... if you trusted Twitter".
Joke's on you... (Score:5, Insightful)
This says I should trust google with all my data
Actually, it says that Google is better than Microsoft or Facebook at protecting user's data from government requests, and much better than Apple or Amazon (to pick a few). Trust is not implied; companies are scored on items on which they should be distrusted. Google scores nearer the better end of that scale than Microsoft or Facebook, and companies like Apple (unsurprisingly) are among the worst.
Re:What is this Reddit? (Score:4, Insightful)
EFF never said "Trust Twitter â" Not Apple Or Verizon â" To Protect Your Privacy"
Just as well. If you value your privacy, there's only one way to protect it, and that is to simply keep your private stuff private. As soon as you put it into someone else's hands, you're fucked.
As Benjamin Franklin said, "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead".