Report: WhatsApp, AT&T And Verizon The Worst At Keeping Data Private

(RTTNews) - Technology companies are increasingly being scrutinized for their transparency and privacy practices when they handle government requests for customer data. Meanwhile, customers are worried about how well their data is protected amid data breaches, mass surveillance and government requests for encryption, after government surveillance revelations were made by NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on digital rights, released its fifth annual "Who Has Your Back?" privacy report that ranks top technology companies' on how well they protect customer data from government surveillance and censorship.

According to the report, nine technology companies including Apple performed the best and earned perfect scores. Meanwhile, AT&T, WhatsApp and Verizon are the worst at keeping data private.

The companies' practices and policies are evaluated based on five factors : industry-accepted best practices, disclosures to users about government data requests, public disclosure about the company's retention policies, disclosure of the number of times governments seek the removal of user content or accounts and how often the company complies, and pro-user public policies opposing backdoors that grant government agencies access to customer data.

According to the report, nine technology companies received a perfect five-star rating. The companies are Adobe, Apple, CREDO, Dropbox, Sonic, Wickr, Wikimedia, Wordpress.com, and Yahoo!.

However, the report noted that some of these companies host little or on content and thus, the transparency about government data removal requests may not apply to them.

Other tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat come in the middle of the rankings. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have four-star ratings, while Google, Snapchat, Amazon and Microsoft have three stars.

According to the report, Google should take a stronger position in providing notice to users about government data requests after an emergency has ended or a gag has been lifted. Furthermore, Google should provide transparency into its data retention policies.

Meanwhile, telecom companies AT&T and Verizon Communications, as well as WhatsApp, which was added newly to this year's report, lag behind industry in standing by users. AT&T as well as WhatsApp received the lowest score, with a single-star rating. Verizon Communications earned two stars.

According to the report, the telecom companies are continuing a trend that was identified in prior reports where many large telecom providers fail to keep pace with the rest of the tech sector.

"WhatsApp earned credit for its parent company Facebook's public policy position opposing backdoors and nothing else," the report noted.

Further, the report said that an overwhelming majority, or 21 of the 24 tech companies that were evaluated, took a public position opposing government-mandated backdoors.