has enabled collaboration and research that expand far beyond the limits of its own capacity. As a result of publishing the methodology (2018 Indicators, 2018) and making it available to the public under a Creative Commons license, making the raw data (Download the Data and Documents, 2018) available for others to adapt or present in different ways (Internet Monitor Dashboard, n.d.), and being transparent and inclusive around the methodology development and research processes, groups have been able to adapt and apply the research in their own contexts. Some of the new, localised projects include a study assessing the privacy policies of telecommunications companies in Pakistan by the Digital Rights Foundation (Chaudri, Dad, Khan, Zahid, & Kamran, 2016), an evaluation of the privacy and freedom of expression disclosures of mobile operators (Abrougui, 2018) in the Arab region by Social Media Exchange and a ranking of New York City internet service providers (ISPs) (Wiley, Byrum, Ponce, & Romero, 2018) on their respect for privacy by the New School Digital Equity Lab. CONCLUSION RDR’s research reveals gaps in disclosure and tracks changes in companies’ respect for privacy and freedom of expression over time. Taking this evidence forward, in several cases where RDR and advocacy partners have pushed for greater transparency, companies have made notable improvements. RDR’s approach to research allows for scaling beyond the limited resources of the project and enables advocates and researchers throughout the global digital rights network to build upon this work in order to highlight localised corporate accountability issues and push for greater transparency in their own contexts. To this end, researchers, technologists, journalists and digital rights advocates are encouraged to draw on the research and findings, and build out what RDR has started as a basis for greater corporate accountability and respect for digital rights online. ♦
FOOTNOTE 1 The scores show the performance of the ranked
Scores are based on a 0 to 100 scale. To see the
companies on indicators that are part of the 2019
full
Corporate Accountability Index methodology.
org/2019-indicators
56
methodology:
https://rankingdigitalrights.
