Research for the 2020 RDR Corporate Accountability Index will be conducted following a rigorous process of cross checking, peer review, company feedback, and quality control. The process for the 2020 RDR Index, conducted by RDR and a team of more than 30 researchers from around the world, includes the following steps:
- Step 1: Primary Data Collection. Primary researchers are responsible for verifying results of the previous (2019) RDR Index. If the company policy has changed, and in the case of new indicators and elements, primary researchers are responsible for collecting data and providing an evaluation of those policies. Step 1 researchers will also conduct an evaluation of how the current policy compares to the previous RDR Index.
- Step 2: Secondary Review. Secondary reviewers fact check the assessments provided by primary researchers in Step 1, including agreeing or disagreeing with the year-on-year-analysis.
- Step 3: Review and Reconciliation. RDR team discusses the results from Steps 1 and 2 and resolves any differences that arise.
- Step 4: Company Feedback. Companies have the opportunity to review the preliminary evaluation and provide feedback to the RDR team. The team evaluates the input from companies to determine if it warrants a change in the evaluation.
- Step 5: Processing company feedback. RDR considers the feedback from companies, and makes any adjustments to evaluations, as needed.
- Step 6: Horizontal Review. The RDR team cross-checks the indicators to ensure they have been evaluated consistently across each company.
- Step 7: Final Scoring. RDR team assigns final scores. The final results also include an analysis of the company’s scores from the previous year.
Evaluation and scoring
Companies receive a cumulative score of their performance across all RDR Index categories, and results show how companies performed by each category and indicator.
The RDR Index evaluates company disclosure of the overarching “parent,” or “group,” level as well as those of selected services and/or local operating companies, depending on company structure. Each indicator has a list of elements, and companies receive credit (full, partial, or no credit) for each element they fulfill.
The evaluation includes an assessment of disclosure for every element of each indicator, based on one of the following possible answers:
- “Yes”/ full disclosure. Company disclosure meets the element requirement.
- “Partial.” Company disclosure has met some but not all aspects of the element, or the disclosure is not comprehensive enough to satisfy the full scope of what the element is asking for.
- “No disclosure found.” Researchers were not able to find information provided by the company on their website that answers the element question.
- “No.” Company disclosure exists, but it specifically does not disclose to users what the element is asking. This is distinct from the option of “no disclosure found,” although both result in no credit.
- “N/A.” Not applicable. This element does not apply to the company or service. Elements marked as N/A will not be counted for or against a company in the scoring process.
Points
- Yes/full disclosure = 100
- Partial = 50
- No = 0
- No disclosure found = 0
- N/A excluded from the score and averages
Note on national contexts affecting company performance: In most countries, certain laws, regulations, or political factors will either enhance or limit a company’s ability to perform well on certain indicators. Our methodology does not compensate for these factors. In other words, the RDR Index evaluates companies on what they do or don’t do, regardless of the reason. However, final results for companies include an analysis of how the company’s home jurisdiction’s legal, regulatory, and political environment may have affected its score.
In some cases, a company’s strong or weak performance on a given indicator will be due to the legal, regulatory, or political environment of that company’s home country. In situations where laws and regulations cause companies to perform poorly, we encourage companies to advocate for laws that enable them to fully respect users’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy by disclosing strong commitments, policies, and practices.
View and download the 2020 RDR Index methodology: https://rankingdigitalrights.org/2020-indicators
Learn which companies we are ranking in the 2020 RDR Index: https://rankingdigitalrights.org/2020-companies
