Every year, we evaluate 26 of the world’s most powerful digital platforms and telecom companies on how well they uphold the human rights that are fundamental to our dignity and democracy.
Zak Rogoff: Can you start by giving me your observations of what RDR is like now compared to the beginning, when you founded it? Rebecca MacKinnon: In 2013, it was just an idea getting off the ground. We didn’t actually have an index of any
In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal helped propel the perils of surveillance capitalism into the mainstream. The following year, the release of Shoshana Zuboff’s pivotal book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, cemented the issues of data privacy and targeted advertising as top problems of our
From its inception, Ranking Digital Rights’s standards and methodology were designed with investors in mind. Indeed, our Corporate Accountability Index was devised almost a decade ago alongside ESG ratings provider Sustainalytics. Since then, RDR has aimed to ensure our standards would be usable for responsible
When RDR’s first Corporate Accountability Index was released in 2015, grading 16 tech and telecom companies on their respect for privacy and freedom of expression, it was the first of its kind to rank the impact of companies on specifically digital rights. Unsurprisingly, it took the policy world
Image created with MidJourney Soon Ranking Digital Rights will release the Generative AI Accountability Scorecard, evaluating major consumer-facing generative AI services’ respect for the human rights to privacy, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, and freedom of information. Today, we are sharing a consultation draft of the
Photo via MidJourney Despite Central Asia’s political turmoil and fragile democratic institutions, its digital services sector has grown steadily in recent years, a trend accelerated during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. With countries across the region continuing to introduce programs focused on digitization—from work-from-home schemes to
The annual AGM (annual general meetings) season at major tech companies recently wrapped up in a climate of increased scrutiny toward the industry, with the rapid emergence of new AI and AI-powered tools. While these new tools may appear to rekindle excitement in an industry
RDR is 10 years old! Over the last decade, Ranking Digital Rights has laid the bedrock for corporate accountability in the ICT sector and exerted pressure on the most powerful of these companies to uphold their obligations to respect and promote human rights. To mark
It’s our 10-year anniversary, which means that RDR has been keeping tech companies accountable for over a decade. In honor of this occasion, the RDR team held its first-ever in-person retreat to set our new strategic priorities! It was a fantastic opportunity to get the team together, and also the first time some of our remote team members met in person.
The conference season is ramping up with two of the most important digital rights events coming up: EngageMedia’s second DRAPAC conference next week and Access Now’s 12th annual RightsCon at the beginning of June! And RDR will be there. Our sessions this year will be
