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Article

11 Mar 2016

Author:
Lori McGlinchey, Program Officer, Internet Freedom, Ford Foundation (USA)

"Are tech companies doing enough to protect customer rights & privacy?" - interview with Rebecca MacKinnon

[originally published 29 Feb. 2016]

When Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company would not comply with the FBI’s demand that it help unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, it set off an intense debate about how the right to privacy and other civil liberties apply to...digital technologies... The ensuing controversy has also highlighted how little most people know about who has access to our personal data and how that information is used... 

...Last year, [Rebecca] MacKinnon launched the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index, which details how some of the world’s most powerful Internet and telecommunications companies fare when it comes to protecting their customers’ freedom of expression and privacy. The...Index helps us see how corporate practices shape the lives of billions of people around the world, and understand the kinds of questions we need to be asking about the digital products and services we rely on.

...She urges us to stop thinking of ourselves as passive “users” of technology who “consume content” and are “served ads,” and instead assert our rights—to information, access, and privacy—in the same way that people throughout history have fought for civil and human rights... 

How do companies themselves benefit from respecting people’s privacy and abiding by human rights standards?

[MacKinnon:] The idea that a company’s only obligation is to maximize profits...is no longer a mainstream view... If you want your brand to be trusted and people to feel good about using your products, if you want a prosperous and creative community in which to operate, it’s in your long term interest to act responsibly... 

What can you tell us about reactions of Yahoo and some of the companies included in the Index so far?

[MacKinnon:] Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have all said...that they found this exercise useful. It sparked internal conversations about how their policies and practices are perceived externally, and about what they want to do in response to our evaluation of them. We have seen a couple of changes already...