Today, we’re pleased to announce that we are revising our third-annual “Who Has Your Back?” report to award Myspace three stars.
Since the publication of our 2013 report, which did not grant Myspace any stars, the company has reached out to us and noted that in our review of Myspace’s website we missed some key information. First, Myspace pointed out their previously published law enforcement guidelines. Because those guidelines are publicly available, and because they require a warrant for the content of communications, we have amended our report to give Myspace the two relevant stars. EFF had previously received Myspace’s law enforcement guidelines via a FOIA request to the government, but for purposes of the Who Has Your Back report, we only count companies who make those guidelines available on their website so their customers can find them.
In addition, the company separately provided evidence to us that Myspace has gone to court to protect its users against a government request for user content in a 2007 Pennsylvania case in which they resisted a 28 U.S.C. § 2703(d) order that purported to seek user content. With this, Myspace earns its third star for fighting for users’ rights in the courts.
We are pleased that this year Myspace took the time to reach out and draw these matters to our attention and we apologize for not finding the law enforcement guidelines earlier. We had tried to reach out to the company before publishing but to no avail. At our suggestion, Myspace has also agreed to increase the visibility of their law enforcement guidelines on the website, hopefully making them easier for their customers to find. We suggest that companies provide links or references to their law enforcement guidelines in their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, where law enforcement access is otherwise referenced and also to publicize the fact that they have fought back against overbroad law enforcement efforts in the courts so that their customers can readily see those facts.
Overall, we’re happy to award Myspace these three additional stars and hope that other companies will take up the challenge.
