Online firms fail on privacy, data protection

The world's biggest Internet and telecom companies are falling short in protecting privacy and online freedom of expression, a study released Tuesday showed.

 The Ranking Digital Rights project's first corporate accountability index based on more than two years of research gave a poor rating to most of the major online firms.

 The study rated eight major Internet firms and eight large telecom providers on their commitment to privacy and freedom of expression, transparency and protection of user data.

 "When we put the rankings in perspective, it's clear there are no winners," said Rebecca MacKinnon, director of the project which is housed at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.

 "Our hope is that the index will lead to greater corporate transparency, which can empower users to make more informed decisions about how they use technology."

 With firms ranked on a scale of zero to 100, Google got the highest score among the 16 companies at 65 percent.

 Among other Internet firms, Yahoo came in second with a score of 58 percent, followed by Microsoft (56 percent) and Twitter (50 percent). The lowest scores were Russia's Mail.ru at 13 percent and China's Tencent at 16 percent.

 Among the telecoms, Britain's Vodafone did best with a score of 54 percent, followed by US-based AT&T at 50 percent. Lowest were Middle East-based Etisalat Group at 14 percent and Malaysia's Axiata at 16 percent.

Caption: Representative image

Photo Credit: www.information-age.com