Code hosting
GitHub privacy rating
Git hosting service owned by Microsoft, with pull requests, issues, Actions CI/CD, package hosting, Pages static sites and Copilot AI features.
Summary
GitHub scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 4 of 8 criteria: transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration and security headers. It partly meets no ads or data sales and independent audit. It does not meet open source and no trackers or telemetry. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+.
Score 50 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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No
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
Closed source. Some tools, such as GitHub Desktop and GitHub CLI, are open source.
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The privacy statement allows third-party cookies for interest-based advertising, and the Exodus report finds Google Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics in the Android app.
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Partial
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by subscriptions, but the privacy statement says third-party cookies may gather data for interest-based advertising.
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Partial
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
SOC reports and ISO/IEC 27001 certification are only available to organization owners in account settings.
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Yes
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Publishes a transparency report with counts of requests for user information, disclosures and takedowns, with data in the github/transparency repository.
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Yes
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
Policy is to notify affected users about requests for their account information unless prohibited by law or court order.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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Yes
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+ (115/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.