Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) produces a Corporate Accountability Index that ranks the world’s most powerful internet, mobile ecosystem, and telecommunications companies on relevant commitments and policies, based on international human rights standards.
The RDR Index is a standard-setting tool aimed at encouraging companies to abide by universal human rights standards guaranteeing freedom of expression and privacy. These standards build on more than a decade of work by the human rights, privacy, and security communities, including the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which affirms that just as governments have a duty to protect human rights, companies have a responsibility to respect human rights. The RDR Index also builds on the Global Network Initiative (GNI) principles6 and implementation guidelines, which address ICT companies’ specific responsibilities towards freedom of expression and privacy in the face of government demands to restrict content or hand over user information.7 The RDR Index further draws on a body of emerging global standards and norms around data protection, security, and access to information. The RDR Index data and analysis inform the work of human rights advocates, policymakers, and responsible investors, and are used by companies to improve their own policies and practices.
The first RDR Index was released in 2015, and ranked 16 internet and telecommunications companies.
The 2017 RDR Index ranked 22 companies, which included all of the companies evaluated in 2015 plus an additional six companies. We also added new types of services, including those that produce software and devices that we call “mobile ecosystems.” As a result, we expanded the methodology to account for the potential threats to users’ freedom of expression and privacy that can arise from the use of networked devices and software.8 We further refined the methodology based on a detailed review of the raw data from the 2015 RDR Index, as well as in consultation with stakeholders from civil society, academia, the investor community, and the companies themselves.
The 2018 RDR Index applied the same methodology to evaluate the same 22 companies as in the 2017 RDR Index. This enabled us to produce comparative analyses of each company’s performance and to track overall trends.
To read more about our methodology development, see: rankingdigitalrights.org/methodology-development
The 2019 RDR Index evaluates the same 22 companies previously evaluated, plus two new telecommunications companies (Deutsche Telekom and Telenor), and added new cloud services to the evaluation of internet and mobile ecosystem companies. The 2019 RDR Index also contains limited revisions to two indicators, aimed at addressing increasingly key issues that companies in the technology sector face. Specifically, Indicator G4—evaluating corporate disclosure of human rights due diligence—was expanded to include two new elements evaluating if companies conduct human rights risks assessments (HRIAs) associated with their use of automated decision-making technologies and with their targeted advertising policies and practices. Indicator G6 was revised and strengthened to better align with standards and expectations outlined in the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
What’s ahead: Following the launch of the 2019 RDR Index, we plan to expand our methodology to address human rights harms associated with targeted advertising, algorithms, and machine learning. We will also adapt the methodology to include more company types, like powerful global platforms with core e-commerce businesses such as Amazon and Alibaba. The fifth RDR Index, with the expanded methodology and scope, will be published in 2021.
For more about our methodology and development process, see:
rankingdigitalrights.org/methodology-development/2021-revisions
[6] “Principles,” Global Network Initiative, accessed February 27, 2017, globalnetworkinitiative.org/gni-principles
[7] “Implementation Guidelines,” Global Network Initiative, accessed February 28, 2017, globalnetworkinitiative.org/implementation-guidelines
[8] “RDR Launches 2017 Corporate Accountability Index Research Cycle,” Ranking Digital Rights, September 15, 2016, rankingdigitalrights.org/2016/09/15/rdr-launches-2017-research
