Who We Are

Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) is an independent research program at the policy think tank New America.​

Our small team spans the globe and comprises experts on a wide range of internet and human rights-related issues, from algorithms to ad tech to data protection and beyond. We were founded in 2013 by Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, which has become the source code for RDR. In her book, MacKinnon foresaw the dangers of a world in which “the corporations and governments that build, operate, and govern cyberspace are not being held sufficiently accountable for their exercise of power over the lives and identities of people who use digital networks.” 

 

We believe that transparency is the first step to accountability. We evaluate the policies and practices of the world’s most powerful tech and telecom companies and study their effects on people’s fundamental human rights. We are the only organization in the world that produces an open dataset on companies’ commitments and policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy.

 

Our work guides policymakers, investors, and advocates seeking to shape a digital public sphere in which networked technologies respect human rights, strengthen democracy, and promote equity and justice for people everywhere.

Our Vision

An internet that supports and sustains human rights.

Our Mission

To promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect user’s rights.

Our Theory of Change

By benchmarking and ranking them against standards that set high but achievable goals for corporate transparency and rights-respecting policies, we give companies an incentive to improve their policies and practices over time.

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RDR Corporate Accountability Index

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Companies Improve Policies and Disclosures

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Global Internet Sustains and Supports Human Rights

Our Impact

Since we launched our first RDR Corporate Accountability Index in 2015, all of the companies we rank have have made some improvement to their disclosed commitments and policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. In addition:

  • A majority of companies we rank -19 of 26- now publish formal human rights commitments, up from less than half of ranked companies in 2015.

  • Transparency reporting on content moderation is quickly becoming the industry standard, with seven companies in 2020 doing at least some reporting, up from zero in 2015.

  • More than half of all companies we rank now publish a policy describing how they handle data breaches, whereas just three companies did so when we  first started to benchmark this issue in 2017.

Our Team

Founded in 2013, Ranking Digital Rights has grown into a diverse team of researchers, journalists and communicators, lawyers and technologists. Collectively, we speak nearly a dozen languages and have a wide range of lived experience. We are globally distributed and call home a variety of locales in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. And we also work with an exceptional network of researchers from all over the world.

 

If you would like to work with us or become a contributing researcher, please browse our current opportunities or send us an email.

Kelly Ross

Operations Officer

Sophia Crabbe-Field

Senior Editor

Oscar Montiel

Interim Team Lead

Zak Rogoff

Research Manager

Augusto Mathurin

Data Engineer

Jie Zhang

Research Analyst

Anna Lee Nabors

Program Associate

Leandro Ucciferri

Global Partnerships Manager

Former RDR Fellows

Afef Abrougui

Research Fellow

Rae Moors

COMPASS Fellow

Farah Rasmi

Research Fellow

Erika Solis

COMPASS Fellow

Kim Mai Tran

Company Engagement Fellow

Nicholas Wilson

Policy Fellow

Ruslan Daiyrbekov

Central Asia Fellow

Yelzhan Kabyshev

Central Asia Fellow

RDR Researcher Network, 2021-22

Joan Barata

Cyber Policy Center, Stanford University

Arindrajit Basu

Centre for Internet and Society, India

Krzysztof Garstka

Lucía Camacho Gutiérrez

Fundación Karisma

Elonnai Hickok

Dumitrita Holdis

Center for Media, Data and Society, Central European University

Kelly Kim

Open Net Korea

Michael Kowen

University of California, Berkeley

Ginny Kozemczak

Cardozo School of Law

Cannelle Lavite

Tanya Lokot

Dublin City University

Bojan Perkov

SHARE Foundation

Outi Puukko

University of Helsinki

Viviana Rangel

Fundación Karisma

Laura Reed

Moussa Saleh

SMEX

Mariam Al Shafie

SMEX

Eva Simon

Civil Liberties Union for Europe

Jiwon Son

Open Net Korea

Amy McEwan-Strand

Florian Wittner

Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)

Governance

Ranking Digital Rights is an independent program of the Washington D.C. non-profit policy think tank New America, a registered 501(c3). New America is governed by a board of directors. Its leadership is headed by Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, and Paul Butler, President and Chief Transformation Officer.

 

 

New America acts as a fiscal sponsor for RDR, which compensates New America for use of its administrative services and facilities. Neither New America’s board, its executives or any other New America program director is involved in any part of research conducted by RDR, including the selection and scoring of companies.

Funding

Ranking Digital Rights generates revenue by applying for grants and engaging in a limited amount of fee-for-service work.

 

We do not take contributions from any of the companies we rank or any company that we may potentially rank in the future.

 

We are grateful to our funders and institutional partners for their ongoing support and enthusiasm for RDR’s work.

Current Funders, 2021-2023

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