Investors urge companies to use Ranking Digital Rights’ Index to improve their respect for users’ digital rights

A group of investors has endorsed the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Corporate Accountability Index as an important tool for helping tech companies meet their human rights responsibilities and for helping investors identify digital rights risks. In Dec, 49 members of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights (IAHR), a coalition of global funds focused on advancing corporate human rights due diligence, issued a statement to the 22 internet, mobile and telecommunications companies evaluated in the RDR Corporate Accountability Index urging these companies to use the Index to improve governance systems and performance on salient human rights risks related to privacy and freedom of expression. Investors argue that, as custodians of their users’ data and digital rights, these companies have a responsibility to respect users’ right to privacy and freedom of expression and must be accountable for how they handle users’ data.