When the Government Comes Knocking, Who Has Your Back?

eff.org

EFF Charts the Privacy and Transparency Practices of the Internet’s Biggest Companies

For Immediate Release: Thursday, May 31, 2012

San Francisco – When you use the Internet, you entrust your thoughts, experiences, locations, and more to companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook. But what happens when the government asks these companies to hand over your private information? Will the company stand with you? Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) releases its second annual “When the Government Comes Knocking, Who Has Your Back?” report – this time as a white paper and chart tracking some of the Internet’s biggest service providers on their public commitments to their users’ privacy and security.

Increasingly, federal law enforcement agents are demanding that Internet companies provide their users’ data as part of government investigations – sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly. EFF’s report examines 18 companies’ terms of service, privacy policies, public representations, advocacy, and courtroom track records, awarding them gold stars for best practices in categories like “tell users about government data demands” and “fight for user privacy in courts.”

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