EFF 2015 Privacy Scorecard: Google Down from 2014, WhatsApp Worst

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Wired took a look at the privacy scorecard just released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Google, which had a perfect score in 2014, slipped a bit while the worst offenders were WhatsApp, AT&T, and Verizon. I'll give you a moment to clear the shock from your faces. :D

...Given Googleís past leadership in fighting government data requests and the enormous cache of information the company collects on its users, the companyís behavior is ìdisappointing,î says EFF staff attorney Nate Cardozo, who worked on the study. ìWe feel confident that companies can always be doing more, and we like to reward companies for leading the pack,î says Cardozo. In at least two categories of privacy protection, ìGoogleís no longer there.î
 
Of course none of this would be necessary if companies wouldn't collect all our personal data in the first place.
 
"Google's past leadership..." my ass, they were right in there with all the companies giving up data until it became a public / publicity issue, then they changed their attitude, supposedly.
 
Of course none of this would be necessary if companies wouldn't collect all our personal data in the first place.

Google's business model makes it absolutely necessary to collect, store, and mine every aspect of user activity on the services they offer. If it weren't for that, Google would have to sell licenses and charge for usage which would put it into direct competition with incumbents like Microsoft. It may not be possible for the company to make that sort of transition and likely not worth it unless their services aren't used due to their current business model. That probably won't happen anytime soon and I think something catastrophic like a major data breech would have to go public with lots and lots of peoples' dirty little secrets being exposed before the love-fest of nerds and an apathetic general population would pay any attention.
 
I think something catastrophic like a major data breech would have to go public with lots and lots of peoples' dirty little secrets being exposed before the love-fest of nerds and an apathetic general population would pay any attention.

This has already happened several times and the general population is still completely apathetic.
 
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