Google, Facebook, Twitter: Which tech companies are best at respecting your privacy?
Worried about what companies like Google and Facebook are doing with all that personal data of yours they have?
Google and Vodafone have come out top in a ranking revealing which tech and telecoms companies are best at respecting your digital rights, based on everything from the data they collect to where they sell it and how they handle government requests for information.
Facebook came out far worse, scoring lower than all tech companies except Tencent and Mail.ru.
Among telecoms companies, Vodafone came out top, followed by AT&T and Orange.
Non-profit organisation Ranking Digital Rights studied the 16 biggest Internet and telecoms companies, and found some worrying results:
Only six of the companies passed the test, scoring above 50 per cent. And nearly half scored less than 25 per cent, showing what Ranking Digital Rights called a “serious deficit of respect for users’ freedom of expression and privacy”.
Companies were assessed based on their commitment, freedom of expression and privacy, all of which were then aggregated into a total score.
Even Google, the overall winner, scored no higher than 65 per cent, showing there is plenty of room for improvement, as the organisation said in a statement:
Even the companies that ranked highest are missing the mark in some ways, and improvements are needed across the board to demonstrate a greater commitment to users’ freedom of expression and privacy.