Rebecca MacKinnon
Founding Director, Ranking Digital Rights
Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) content is no longer updated on New America’s website. RDR is now located at the World Benchmarking Alliance.
Key Findings
- Company disclosure is inadequate across the board. Most of the world’s internet users lack the information they need to make informed choices.
- Mobile ecosystems have the least amount of disclosure. We don’t know enough about the impact of smartphones on our digital rights.
- Freedom of expression is getting short-changed. Most companies disclosed less about policies affecting freedom of expression than privacy.
- Handling of user information is opaque. How and why is our information collected, shared, retained, and used? They don’t tell us enough.
- Security commitments lack evidence. Trust will be elusive unless companies share credible information about security
The 2017 Index ranks 22 companies on 35 indicators across three categories. The indicators measure if and how well companies disclose policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The Index evaluates policies of the parent company, operating company and those of selected services (depending on company structure).
Read more about the methodology, research process and how we score each company.
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