Global digital rights advocacy group Access Now has teamed up with the Business and Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC) on a campaign urging all 22 companies evaluated in our 2018 Corporate Accountability Index to publicly respond to Index findings.
The Index ranks the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their disclosed policies affecting freedom of expression and privacy. Our 2018 Index found that all companies evaluated failed to disclose enough about these policies and practices for people to make informed decisions about their products and services.
In order to encourage companies to respond to our findings, Access Now has sent public letters to top executives of each of the companies ranked in the Index, with recommendations on ways each company can improve. The letters, which can be viewed here, draw from each company’s individual “report card” that summarizes their performance in the Index and outlines key areas where the company could improve its disclosure without requiring regulatory change.
Research from the 2018 Index found that while some companies are doing better than others, all companies can improve in the following areas:
- Privacy: Companies failed to disclose enough about what user information is collected and shared, with whom, and under what circumstances.
- Security: Companies provided insufficient evidence of measures to protect users’ information.
- Expression: Companies don’t say enough about how they police content.
- Governance: Too few companies make users’ expression and privacy rights a central priority for corporate oversight, governance, and risk assessment.
Responses by companies to Access Now’s letters will be published on the Business and Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC) website as they are received.
