A group of investors has endorsed the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Corporate Accountability Index as an important tool for helping tech companies meet their human rights responsibilities and for helping investors identify digital rights risks.
In December, 49 members of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights (IAHR), a coalition of global funds focused on advancing corporate human rights due diligence, issued a statement to the 22 internet, mobile and telecommunications companies evaluated in the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Corporate Accountability Index urging these companies to use the RDR Index to improve governance systems and performance on salient human rights risks related to privacy and freedom of expression.
The group also highlighted growing financial and reputational risks in the ICT sector due to the mishandling of user data and real and potential human rights abuses. In the statement, the investors say they rely on the RDR Index to assist in investment decision-making and to inform corporate engagements with the ICT sector. Investors argue that, as custodians of their users’ data and digital rights, these companies have a responsibility to respect users’ right to privacy and freedom of expression and must be accountable for how they handle users’ data.
RDR is proud to be recognized by a growing number investors who hold shares in the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies as an indispensable tool for conducting due diligence on potential risks in their portfolios and engaging with those companies about how they can improve respect for users’ rights. As Rosa van den Beemt of NEI Investments stated in today’s IAHR press release: “As investors we are committed to using the transparent and comparable data the RDR Index provides to hold companies accountable.
RDR maintains an investor resource page which includes useful materials such as links to an October 2018 investor webinar hosted by IAHR, and our 2018 Investor Update analyzing the relationship between the 2018 RDR Index findings on company policies and disclosures and some of the key developments reflected in last year’s negative headlines about several of the world’s most powerful internet companies.
Most notably, investors turned to RDR data and analysis in the wake of the revelation that, unbeknownst to its users, Facebook data was shared with the political research firm Cambridge Analytica in order to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In May 2018 Domini Funds cited RDR in announcing its decision to sell all Facebook holdings. RDR research was also cited in an open letter from 78 organizations to major Facebook shareholders, and in a shareholder resolution by Arjuna Capital.
We look forward to engaging further with the investment community on the findings of the 2019 RDR Index, to be released in May.
