Consumer Privacy: EFF Gives Tech Giants Far Better Grades Than Telecom Companies

While many technology firms have taken major strides in standing up for consumer privacy, especially in the face of government pressure, telecommunications companies still lag behind in best practices according to a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

In its annual “Who Has Your Back” report published Monday, the EFF highlighted how a number of major technology firms have lived up to expectations when it comes to protecting the privacy of individuals using their services.

Read: NSA Surveillance: Agency Collected More Than 150 Million Phone Records In 2016

The EFF used five categories as its gauge for how effective companies have been at providing privacy: following industry-wide best practices, telling users about government data requests, promising not to “sell out” users who may be of interest to government organizations, standing up to government gag orders and fighting for pro-user public policy.

Only nine of the 26 companies examined by the nonprofit privacy advocacy organization earned a 5-star rating for excelling in each category: Adobe, progressive-aligned mobile carrier Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, regional high-speed internet provider Sonic, Uber, private messaging app Wickr and Wordpress.

Other high-profile companies including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Google all achieved four-star ratings but fell short in at least one area.

In the case of Apple, is was in relation to public policy. The Cupertino giant has not publicly called for the government to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the United States government to target, without warrant, the communications of people living outside the country—and in some cases allows for the collection of emails and phone calls from U.S. citizens.

Read: FBI Gag Orders: FBI Secret Subpoenas To Collect User Data From Tech Companies Dropped 5 Percent In 2016

For Google, Facebook and Microsoft, the EFF determined the massive tech companies came up short when it comes to fighting National Security Letters, which allow the government to persuade the companies to provide data from a user’s account without a warrant.

While most of the major tech firms that people interact with on a daily basis have made major strides in recent years to stand against government surveillance and have fought to protect user privacy, other firms have fallen well short of expectations.

Telecoms appear to be the primary violators by the EFF’s assessment. T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T all managed to score only one star in the organization’s ratings. The companies all follow industry-wide best practices for disclosing data requests from the government but do nothing more.

The lackadaisical approach to consumer privacy from telecoms is troubling considering the amount of data entrusted to the providers of mobile networks. Everything from communications to locations to web browsing activity is done over telecom networks, much of which can be tracked to an individual. A willingness to surrender that information upon governmental request could put innocent users at risk.

Such requests have been the subject of debate in recent months. The Supreme Court will soon hear a case that will challenge whether law enforcement should be required to get a warrant before they can access cell tower records that help pinpoint the location of a user.

The case was brought after authorities obtained—without a warrant—127 days worth of cell-site data that included 12,898 location points that were used to convict a Detroit-area man for a series of robberies.​