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.
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).
Read more about the methodology, research process, and how we score each company.
The 2017 Index added three mobile ecosystems to this year’s ranking: Apple iOS, Google Android, and Samsung’s implementation of Android. Our analysis shows that all three failed to sufficiently disclose policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. Read more.
Network shutdowns are a growing threat to human rights around the world. But all telecommunication companies failed to provide sufficient disclosure of their policies for responding to requests by governments to shut down their networks. Read more.
Russian internet companies operate in an increasingly restrictive environment, but our data shows there is room for companies to disclose more about policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. Read more about how Russian internet companies Mail.Ru and Yandex compared.
Chinese internet company Tencent disclosed more information about its policies affecting users’ rights than Baidu—and both disclosed more about policies affecting users’ privacy than those affecting freedom of expression. Read more about how these two Chinese internet companies compared.
