How Private Is Your iPhone, WhatsApp Chat? EFF Downgrades Apple In Privacy Practices Report

Apple received four out of five stars in the latest Electronic Frontier Foundation privacy practices report, down one star from last year. Amazon and messaging app WhatsApp received only two stars, while telecommunications companies received only one star.

The rankings were detailed in the seventh annual “Who Has Your Back” report. The EFF evaluated 25 companies and ranked them based on five categories.

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Apple’s lower score comes after the EFF added two new categories: “promises not to sell out users,” and “stands up to NSL gag orders.” Apple failed in the Pro-user public policy: Reform 702 category, which refers to the law that allows the National Security Agency to conduct mass surveillance on Americans.

The report says:

“This provision of law is the legal lynchpin for the NSA’s mass Internet surveillance that impacts the communications of countless Americans. We are awarding credit to companies that support reforming Section 702 in order to reduce the collection of information on innocent people ...”

“Apple has not publicly called for reforms to Section 702 to curtail the surveillance of innocent people.”

Facebook, Google and Microsoft received four stars, like Apple, but failed to promise they will stand up to FBI gag orders.

Perfect Scores

Nine companies, Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr and Wordpress, had 5 stars. The EFF said the companies had a track record of defending user privacy against the government.

Amazon and WhatsApp Lag Behind

However, other companies received much lower scores. WhatsApp and Amazon received only two stars. The report said Amazon and WhatsApp needed to “promise to inform users” before sharing data to the government and to create a public policy for requesting judicial review of all National Security Letters (NSLs), which are FBI requests for user information that are issued with no court oversight. It also urged the companies to clarify its policies regarding third-party access of its user data.

Telecommunications Companies Receive Lowest Score

Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, and T-Mobile got the worst score, only one star. The EFF said telecommunications companies are failing to protect user data when government demands it.

“The tech industry as a whole has moved toward providing its users with more transparency, but telecommunications companies—which serve as the pipeline for communications and Internet service for millions of Americans—are failing to publicly push back against government overreach,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo in a statement.

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The EFF reminded that data stored in our smartphones and laptops contain personal information about our everyday lives.

“This information is a magnet for governments seeking to surveil citizens, journalists, and activists,” said EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman in a statement. “When governments do so, they need to follow the law, and users are increasingly demanding that companies holding their data enact the toughest policies to protect customer information.”