About the event

Every day for our digital communications and activities, we rely on products, platforms, and services which are controlled by large corporations that have an enormous impact onusers’ human rights including privacy and freedom of expression.  Ranking Digital Rights’ most recent Corporate Accountability Index, released in March 2017, evaluated 22 internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their disclosed commitments and policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy.

On May 23, 2017 Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) and Wikirate, in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society invite you to a hands-on research event at which we will work together to understand how well  telecommunications companies in Europe demonstrate and communicate respect for freedom of expression and privacy to their users. We will focus on selected indicators from the RDR methodology, including those that examine company policies around network shutdowns, how companies inform users of data breaches, and if and how companies collect, retain, and share user data.

We will learn how to use the open access Wikirate.org platform to analyze corporate disclosures. The data generated during the event will become part of a larger corporate accountability effort that uses research for civic awareness and evidence based advocacy.

RDR and HIIG researchers will speak at the workshop about the context and importance of disclosure by global internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies of policies and practices affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. Wikirate representatives will introduce the platform and describe their approach to measuring corporations’ social and environmental behaviour.