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Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo were...

Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo were among the tech companies that topped the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) annual ranking of how strongly tech companies protect consumer data from government requests (http://bit.ly/1hQKvRr). The report singled out Apple and Yahoo…

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for showing “enormous improvements in government access policies.” On the flip side, AT&T, Comcast and Snapchat “lag behind others in industry,” said EFF. The report looked at six factors: whether companies required a warrant to access content; whether they fought for users’ privacy rights in the courts and on Capitol Hill; whether they issued transparency reports and reports on government data requests; and whether they published law enforcement guidelines. EFF said Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo hit all six targets. Snapchat only published law enforcement guidelines, said the report. AT&T did that plus a transparency report, it said. Comcast hit three targets, with a transparency report, law enforcement guidelines and fighting for users’ privacy rights in courts, according to EFF. “In the face of unbounded surveillance, users of technology need to know which companies are willing to take a stand for the privacy of their users,” EFF said.