14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is one of the tech companies that have improved their approach towards customers in the last couple of months as far as their privacy is concerned, and a new study conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation applauds the software giant for its efforts but says that more work needs to be done.
Microsoft was awarded with three out of a maximum of five stars in the new study, as the company is said to be following industry-accepted best practices, telling users about government data demands, adopting pro-user public policies and opposing backdoors.
Google has also received three stars, but as compared to Microsoft, the Mountain View-based search company also discloses government content removal requests, but loses points for the relationship with users when it comes to data demands and disclosure policies on data retention.
Apple, on the other hand, is the big winner of the study, as it’s one of the few companies that got the maximum of five stars.
Microsoft really standing up for transparency
The Electronic Frontier Foundation applauds Microsoft and says that Redmond needs to improve in some areas where its rivals are already acting fairly better, including providing information on the removal requests submitted by governments.
“This is Microsoft’s fifth year in the report, and it has adopted several of the best practices we are highlighting. We appreciate what Microsoft has done to stand up for user transparency and privacy, but it still has more work to do. In particular, Microsoft should make clear its data retention policies and disclose what government content removal requests it receives,” the EFF said.
Microsoft has often stated that it only shares user data with governments based on a warrant, and in addition to that, it publishes a transparency report every quarter to disclose the government data requests it received. Starting this September, the company will also start disclosing the number of times the government wants it to remove user content or accounts completely.