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Apple, Adobe and Yahoo are on top of the EFF's latest survey on the security of user data

By Alan Friedman

Updated: Jun 21, 2015, 2:03 AM

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Apple, Adobe and Yahoo are on top of the EFF's latest survey on the security of user data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual "Who Has Your Back?" survey measures which companies are doing the best job keeping user data secure. The EFF gives each company that it surveys a star or no-star for five different categories: Follows industry-accepted best practices, Tells users about government data demands, Discloses policies on data retention, Discloses government content removal requests and has a Pro-user public policy that opposes backdoors.

Among the companies that received a star for all five categories this year were Apple, Adobe, Dropbox and Yahoo. Twitter, Facebook and Reddit each had four stars putting them on top of messaging apps surveyed. WhatsApp was on the bottom among messaging apps, with just one star.

Among the wireless carriers that were ranked, Verizon had two stars and AT&T had but one. Other major companies that were surveyed include Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and Tumblr (3 Stars each).

Last year, EFF ranked companies on six-categories. Those who had a star in each one included Apple, Facebook, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo.

EFF's 2015 Who Has Your Back? survey measures which companies protect user data the best

source: EFF via Gizmodo

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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