Twitter Does The Best Job Of Protecting People From The Government, Report Shows

When it comes to how Internet companies protect people when the government asks for data, Twitter wins.

So finds a new report from privacy watchdog group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The EFF examined how Internet companies responded to government data requests by looking at six criteria.

1. Requires a warrant.
2. Tells users about government data requests.
3. Publishes transparency reports and stats on how often it provides data to the government.
4. Publishes guidelines for how it dealings with law enforcement requests.
5. Fights for users' privacy rights in courts.
6. Fights for users' privacy in Congress.

Of the companies listed in the report's summary, only two earned a "star" for all six categories: Twitter and a company called Sonic.net, the EEF said. Sonic.net is a company based in Santa Rosa, Calif. that provides people with Internet access.

So that means that Twitter outscored companies like Dropbox, Google and LinkedIn though those companies also did well in the report. A few, like Amazon, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook, didn't score so well.

The EEF delved into all kinds of stats and trends, but one interesting new thing in 2013 was that more companies promise to let people know when the law comes calling. This includes Dropbox, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Sonic.net, SpiderOak, Twitter, and WordPress.

Here's the summary chart: