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10 May

Posted at 05:00h in News by
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Corporate Accountability News Highlights is a regular series by Ranking Digital Rights highlighting key news related to tech companies, freedom of expression, and privacy issues around the world.

Egypt approves controversial ride-hailing bill  

Cairo traffic. Photo by Gigi Ibrahim [CC BY 2.0 via Flickr]

The Egyptian parliament has approved a bill that would regulate ride-hailing apps operating in the country. The new law requires ride-hailing companies to store data locally and to retain user data for 180 days and share it with authorities “on request.” An earlier version of the bill had provisions giving authorities real time access to passenger and trip information, but those provisions were amended due to privacy concerns.

Uber and the Dubai-based ride-hailing app Careem already operate in Egypt. Egypt is Uber’s bigger market in the Middle East with 4 million riders and 157,000 drivers in 2017. Careem operates across 12 Middle Eastern countries countries and Pakistan. The company recently announced a breach that affected 14.5 million riders and drivers.

The two companies will have six months to comply with the new regulations. Despite the Egyptian government’s history of abusing its surveillance powers, both Uber and Careem welcomed the bill’s adoption. “This is a major step forward for the ride-sharing industry as Egypt becomes one of the first countries in the Middle East to pass progressive regulations,” Uber said.

Egypt is the second country in the region to pass legislation regulating such services. Earlier, this year Jordan adopted licensing conditions requiring ride-hailing services to provide the authorities with any requested user data stored in their databases, including information related to ‘’the driver, the car, the rider and the trip.’’

Companies should conduct regular, comprehensive human rights risk assessments that evaluate how laws affect freedom of expression and privacy in the jurisdictions in which they operate as well as assessments of freedom of expression and privacy risks when entering new markets or launching new products. Companies should also seek ways to mitigate risks posed by those impacts.

The 2018 Corporate Accountability Index found that internet, mobile and telecommunication companies do not disclose sufficient information about whether not they conduct such assessment, with eight companies failing to reveal any information at all.

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04 May

Posted at 04:21h in News by
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Corporate Accountability News Highlights is a regular series by Ranking Digital Rights highlighting key news related to tech companies, freedom of expression, and privacy issues around the world.

After Russia, Iran moves to ban Telegram

The Iranian government has moved to block encrypted messaging app Telegram, following its threats to restrict access to the service. On April 30, the Iranian judiciary issued a directive banning the service and requiring all internet service providers (ISPs) to implement the ban by the end of the day.

Image remixed by Mahsa Alimardani (CC BY 3.0)

On its website, the judiciary cited “propaganda against the establishment, terrorist activities, spreading lies to incite public opinion, anti-government protests and pornography” as the reasons behind the ban, according to the BBC.

Immediately after the directive was issued, Telegram users in Iran started reporting difficulties accessing the service. Apple’s App Store was also blocked in an attempt to ban users from downloading Virtual Private Networks to circumvent the censorship. “Now would be a good time for Apple to develop circumvention technology for their app store, as it appears to be blocked in Iran,” Mahsa Alimardani, the Iran programme officer at Article19 tweeted. “Iranians looking to get new tools for circumventing the #filternet are either left without options or have to turn to risky sideloaded apps.”

The use of Telegram is widespread in Iran, with 45 million users in the country. In response to anti-government protests in December 2017, authorities resorted to blocking and throttling access to the service, which dominates the messaging market app inside the country.

The Telegram ban in Iran comes just two weeks after Russian ISPs started blocking the service for refusing to comply with court demands to hand over encryption keys to Russian authorities. On Monday, thousands demonstrated in the capital Moscow and threw paper planes, the logo of Telegram, in protest of Russia’s ban of the service.

Telecommunications companies should be transparent about their processes for responding to government requests to restrict access to networks or to certain services and platforms. They should disclose information about how they handle government network shutdown demands, including under whose authority a shutdown is ordered, so that those responsible can be held accountable. None of the 10 telecommunications companies evaluated in the 2018 Corporate Accountability Index disclosed sufficient information about how they handle government network shutdown demands. Vodafone was the only company to clearly disclose its process for responding to these types of government demands and to clearly commit to push back against demands when possible. Telefónica was the only company that disclosed the number of shutdown requests it received.

 

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26 Apr

Posted at 12:40h in Events, Featured, News by
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Click image to watch video of event (photo by New America).

Despite some notable improvements, the world’s top tech companies still fail to tell us enough about policies affecting freedom of expression and privacy, according to Ranking Digital Rights director Rebecca MacKinnon, who presented key findings of the 2018 Corporate Accountability Index on Wednesday, April 25th at Columbia University in New York City.

The 2018 Corporate Accountability Index ranked 22 of the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their disclosed commitments and practices affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The 2018 Index used the same 35 indicators as the 2017 Index to evaluate the same 22 companies across three categories: Governance, Freedom of Expression, and Privacy.

Results showed that while 17 of the 22 companies evaluated made some improvements over the last year, most companies still did not reveal enough about key policies affecting freedom of expression and privacy for users to understand the risks of using their products and services. Too few companies made users’ expression and privacy rights a central priority, and most failed to disclose enough information about how they handle user data, or how they police online content and speech.

While some companies made genuine improvements, “there is still a long way to go,” MacKinnon said. “We need to know who can exercise power over our digital lives and under what circumstances, we need to be able understand who’s exercising this power if we’re going to hold power accountable.”

Numerous companies, including Apple, improved their disclosure of how they respond to government requests to restrict content or block user accounts, MacKinnon explained. But most companies still failed to provide sufficient data about the volume and nature of content or accounts they restrict or block for violations to the company’s own rules.

While Twitter revealed more than any other internet and mobile ecosystem company about how it handles user information (P3-P9), it still “didn’t even get a passing grade,” Mackinnon said. Facebook, which has come under increased scrutiny over its lack of transparency in how it handles user information, disclosed less than any other internet and mobile ecosystem company—including Chinese companies Baidu and Tencent, and two Russian companies, Mail.Ru and Yandex—about options users have to control their own information (P7).

 

MacKinnon noted that companies that are members of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder initiative that helps companies in the ICT sector protect freedom of expression and privacy, disclosed stronger commitments to users’ rights at the governance level than non-GNI member companies, including by conducting risk assessments that allow companies to manage and mitigate the possible human rights harms of their products and services. However, Index results showed that companies across the board—and regardless of whether they were members of GNI—lacked clear disclosure of grievance and remedy mechanisms allowing users to issue complaints against companies for breaches to their freedom of expression and privacy.

The presentation was followed by a discussion moderated by Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and joined by Anil Dash, chief executive officer of Fog Creek Software, and Ellery Biddle, director of Global Voices Advox.

A video of the full event can be viewed here.

The 2018 Index also includes recommendations for governments, questions for investors, and recommendations for companies. To view and download the complete report, including interactive data and analysis, company report cards, methodology, raw data files, and other resources for download, visit rankingdigitalrights.org/index2018.

25 Apr

Posted at 06:38h in Announcements, Featured, News, Publications by
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Top internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies failed to disclose key policies and practices affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy, according to results of the 2018 Corporate Accountability Index, which Ranking Digital Rights released today.

Tune in here at 9:30am ET (13:30 UTC) to watch the 2018 Index global launch event at Columbia University in New York City. You can also join the conversation on Twitter by following @rankingrights and by using the hashtag #rankingrights.

The 2018 Index evaluated 22 companies whose products and services are collectively used by over half of the world’s 4.2 billion internet users. Results showed that while some companies have improved disclosures in the past year, most internet users are still being left in the dark about how their personal information is accessed and used, and how online speech is managed and policed.

“Companies have not been clear enough about how their products, services, business operations and business models might either cause harm, or be used to violate internet users’ rights,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, director of Ranking Digital Rights. “People do not have enough information to make informed choices as consumers or as citizens, exposing them to undisclosed risks.”

Findings from the 2018 Index include:

  • Facebook disclosed less about how it handles user data than most of its U.S. peers. It also disclosed less information about options for users to control what is collected about them, and how it is used, than any other company in the Index, including two Chinese companies and two Russian companies.
     
  • Most companies withhold basic information about measures they take to safeguard users’ data from breach or theft, preventing users from knowing the risks they may face when using a particular platform or service.
     
  • All of the companies evaluated disclosed too little about how they handle users’ information. In addition to Facebook, companies including Google, Twitter, Apple, Samsung, AT&T, Vodafone, Telefónica, and Orange disclosed too little about how user information is shared for targeted advertising. This opacity makes it easier for digital platforms and services to be abused and manipulated by a range of state and non-state actors who seek to attack individuals as well as institutions and communities.
     
  • Companies do not adequately inform the public about how they police content on their platforms and services. In light of revelations that the world’s most powerful social media platforms have been used to spread disinformation and manipulate political outcomes in a range of countries, companies’ efforts to police and manage content lack accountability without greater transparency.
     
  • Too few companies make users’ rights a central priority for corporate oversight and risk assessment. Companies do not have adequate processes to identify and mitigate the full range of potential harms to users that may be caused not only by government censorship or surveillance, and by malicious non-state actors, but also by practices related to their own business models.

Companies were assessed on 35 indicators in three categories: Governance, Freedom of Expression, and Privacy. The 2018 Index applied the same methodology as the 2017 Index, which enabled us to produce comparative analyses of each company’s performance and to track overall trends.

The 2018 Index also includes recommendations for governments, questions for investors, and recommendations for companies.

To view and download the complete report, including interactive data and analysis, company report cards, methodology, raw data files, and other resources for download, visit rankingdigitalrights.org/index2018. The 2018 Index website and data visualization were developed in partnership with the SHARE Foundation, a digital rights NGO.

For those who want to help promote the Index and our findings, please see our social media toolkit, which contains downloadable report graphics and sample social media posts.

20 Apr

Posted at 06:51h in News, Partnerships by
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The full report from Internet Without Borders is available in English and in French.

Subsidiaries of Orange in Senegal, and Vodafone in Kenya disclose less information about policies affecting their users’ digital rights than their European counterparts, according to research by advocacy group Internet Without Borders. The report evaluated policies from Sonatel (Orange in Senegal) and Safaricom (Vodafone in Kenya) affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The research was conducted using a methodology adapted from the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index.

These two companies seem to face serious challenges in disclosing precise and clear information about how they uphold freedom of expression and privacy of their users. In fact, the study shows that Orange Senegal did not publish its terms of services or a privacy policy, while Safaricom’s terms of service was vague and used complicated legal language, making it not easily accessible to users.

In response to the report, Sonatel (Orange Senegal) said in a statement, “The report tends to project European habits onto an African context without thinking about whether this is accurate.”  However, this shows the the need for better protections in sub-Saharan Africa for freedom of expression and privacy, which are universal human rights norms.

The Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index uses benchmarks that help companies identify areas in which to improve disclosures and practices affecting freedom of expression and privacy. At Internet Without Borders, we hope that our research will inspire companies evaluated, and other telcos in sub-Saharan Africa, to re-assess their policies affecting privacy and freedom of expression. Moreover, we hope that telcos will play their part in leading the transformation of local legal environments in fostering better protection of digital rights in Africa. The initiative by Orange in Côte d’Ivoire to organize a masterclass on privacy in the digital age, following the publication of our report, is a great initiative which should be emulated elsewhere.

This blog post was written by Julie Owono, Executive Director of Internet Without Borders, a Ranking Digital Rights partner organization.

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