“Twitter Beta-Tested a Spine.”

I love this recent Wired story on a much-overlooked issue: Whether and how tech companies stick up for their users’ rights, especially in the face of government demands.

Specifically, Wired gives Twitter props on its successful challenge of the feds’ recent request for user data they claim relates to their WikiLeaks investigation. The story also runs through the history of a few cases involving other biggies like Microsft, Yahoo, and AOL. (Sorry, no Facebook mentions, good or bad.)

Definitely worth a look if you’re interested in protecting your online privacy, as we all should be. I don’t advocate paranoia on this sort of stuff, but I do believe people should at least be aware of their favorite sites’ ground rules, both explicit and implicit.