The Ranking Digital Rights project has launched its first Corporate Accountability Index, in which 16 leading Internet and telecommunications companies were evaluated on the protection they offered their users' digital rights. A total of 31 indicators were taken into account, in an attempt to rate each company's policies and practices that affect users’ freedom of expression and privacy.

For the eight Internet companies and eight telecommunications companies selected, Ranking Digital Rights says that only six companies scored at least 50 percent of the total possible points. The highest score overall was 65 percent, obtained by Google, and nearly half the companies in the Index scored less than 25 percent, "showing a serious deficit of respect for users’ freedom of expression and privacy," according to the project.

Alongside Google, the other Internet companies were (in order of their ranking): Yahoo (58 percent), Microsoft (56), Twitter (50), the South Korean mobile apps company Kakao (47), Facebook (41)—and then a big gap to the remaining two: the Chinese giant Tencent (16 percent) and the Russian Mail.Ru (13). Among the telecoms, Vodafone had the highest score (54 percent), followed by AT&T (50), Orange (37), and then a large drop to the Mexican company América Móvil (22 percent), and several major players operating in the Middle East, Africa and Asia: MTN (18), Bharti Airtel (17), Axiata (16), and Etisalat (14). In general, Internet companies fared better than the leading telecoms players, although the worst scores for both categories were about the same.

The 31 indicators were grouped in three main categories: commitment, freedom of expression, and privacy. An extended research process was employed, but the local laws, regulations, and political situation were not included. As Ranking Digital Rights writes: "the Index evaluates companies on what they do or don’t do, regardless of the reason. However, narrative profiles for each company include an analysis of how the company’s home jurisdiction’s legal, regulatory, and political environment may have affected its score."

Although the scores of the companies are essentially arbitrary, they do highlight strengths and weaknesses among the world's top Internet and telecommunications companies. The project hopes the ranking will prove to be a "a powerful tool for investors, consumers, policymakers, and companies themselves to identify best practices." In addition, Ranking Digital Rights believes "the Index offers a roadmap for other researchers to carry out in-depth investigations, local testing, and monitoring to verify companies’ statements, and track how policies and practices affect users."

Ranking Digital Rights is a non-profit research initiative housed at New America’s Open Technology Institute in Washington D.C. It works with a wide range of affiliates and researchers around the world, and is funded by a number of well-known foundations, including Mark Shuttleworth's.