Ranking Digital Rights 2018 launched

The Ranking Digital Rights 2018 Corporate Accountability Index, a ranking of 22 of ‘the world’s most powerful telecommunications, Internet, and mobile companies on their commitments and disclosed policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy’ was launched on 25 April. The ranking shows changes from 2017, which found that ‘companies leave users largely in the dark about many important policies and practices affecting users’ rights.’ For example, commenting on the report, Rebecca Mackinnon noted that ‘Our analysis has consistently found that Facebook discloses fewer details about how it handles users’ personal information than most of its peers’.

A related report, Digital Rights in Sub Saharan Africa, shows that subsidiaries telecommunications companies in sub-Saharan Africa disclose less information about policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy, according to Julie Owong on the Ranking Digital Rights blog. Owong noted that Sonatel (Orange Senegal) responded that ‘The report tends to project European habits onto an African context without thinking about whether this is accurate.’