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Article

27 Mar 2017

Author:
Ranking Digital Rights

2017 Corporate Accountability Index evaluates 22 companies on their commitments to freedom of expression & privacy

"Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index", 23 Mar 2017

The 2017 Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index evaluates 22 of the world’s most powerful telecommunications, internet, and mobile companies on their public commitments and disclosed policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy.

Key findings:

  • Company disclosure is inadequate across the board. Most of the world’s internet users lack the information they need to make informed choices.
  • Mobile ecosystems have the least amount of disclosure. We don’t know enough about the impact of smartphones on our digital rights.
  • Freedom of expression is getting short-changed. Most companies disclosed less about policies affecting freedom of expression than privacy.
  • Handling of user information is opaque. How and why is our information collected, shared, retained, and used? They don’t tell us enough.
  • Security commitments lack evidence. Trust will be elusive unless companies share credible information about security.

The 2017 Index ranks 22 companies on 35 indicators across three categories. The indicators measure if and how well companies disclose policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The Index evaluates policies of the parent company, operating company and those of selected services (depending on company structure). [Top scoring companies among the Internet and mobile companies were Google (65%), Microsoft (62%) and Yahoo! (58%), while the lowest scoring companies were Baidu (13%), Mail.ru (22%) and Tencent (22%). Top scoring companies among the telecommunications companies were AT&T (48%), Vodafone (48%) and Telefonica (33%), while the lowest scoring were Ooredoo (5%), Etisalat (8%) and Axiata (13%). Refers also to America Movil, Apple, Bharti Airtel, Facebook, Kakao, MTN, Orange, Samsung, Twitter, Yandex, Vodafone].