Categories: Protect Your Rights & Identity

9 companies that do the best job keeping your data safe from prying eyes

National Security Agency sign

Theo Thimou | July 18th, 2017

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When you do business with a company you expect them to keep your personal data private, right? Yet the sad fact is that not all companies honor that commitment to their customers.

So who can you trust?

Each year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) does a tally of businesses that have the best data privacy practices.

The best companies are those who have your back and push back on government requests for private consumer data!

These companies have your back

The U.S. government sent 49,868 requests in 2016 to Facebook for private data about its users, according to the EFF. Google received 27,850 similar requests and Apple received 9,076.

Do you think those companies will sell you out or go to bat for your data privacy?

In its latest report, Who Has Your Back? 2017, the EFF grades Facebook, Google, Apple and two dozen other companies to answer that question.

Each company is grated with one to five stars on five individual metrics:

Following industry-wide best practices:
This includes issuing regular transparency reports, requiring a warrant before disclosing sensitive user information and making public its law enforcement guides to explain how the company shares data with the government.
Tells users about government data requests:
The company must disclose how and when it will tell you if the government seeks your data.
Promises not to sell out users:
This even extends to requiring third parties who handle your data to follow the main company’s privacy policies.
Stands up to National Security Letter gag orders:
The company must agree to have a judge challenge gag orders before complying.
Pro-user Public Policy Reform 702
This metric tracks where companies stand on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance reform.

So after crunching all the data on those fronts for 26 popular companies, the EFF has identified nine it believes do a superior job protecting your data from government intrusion.

All of the following companies received five stars on the metrics mentioned above: