EFF asks which tech companies “have your back”

On Thursday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its second annual “When the government comes knocking, who has your back?” report.

The tech advocacy group surveyed the privacy policies then advocacy and transparency practices of 18 major tech companies. Sonic.net, an independent ISP in Santa Rosa, California, was the only company to get across-the-board four stars. The EFF's four categories are as follows: "tell users about data demands," "Be transparent about government requests," "Fight for user privacy in the courts," and "Fight for user privacy in Congress."

Other high-ranking companies included Dropbox, LinkedIn, Google, and Twitter. The online backup service SpiderOak, a newcomer in the EFF study, also fared well. Many of these companies are members of the Digital Due Process Coalition. It's a set of legal standards established less than a year ago that attempt to create some uniformity for privacy and law enforcement records access compliance.

"Online service providers are the guardians of some of your most intimate data–everything from your messages, to location information, to the identities of your family and friends," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann, in a statement.

"We wanted to acknowledge companies that are adopting best practices and taking exceptional steps to defend their users against government overreaches in the courts and in Congress."

The report also had plenty of poor performing companies, including Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Amazon.

"Amazon is entrusted with huge quantities of information as part of its cloud computing services and retail operations, yet does not produce annual transparency reports, publish a law enforcement guide, or promise to inform users when their data is sought by the government," the EFF wrote.