Telecommunications companies

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V.

Rank: 3rd
Score: 41%out of 100

Headquartered in Mexico, América Móvil provides wireless service to 328.8 million users in 17 countries throughout the Americas and Europe.

América Móvil has improved its policies and transparency more than most telecommunications companies since 2022, particularly in the area of privacy. For the first time, the company provided data about government demands for user information in its transparency report, including statistics of Mexico and other Latino markets. A 2025 report by R3D on digital surveillance in Mexico identified significant risks of abuse in government access to user data, driven by extensive government powers, weak oversight mechanisms, and limited transparency around how requests are made and implemented. In this context, greater transparency from América Móvil regarding government data requests became particularly important, given its central role in enabling such access.

The company’s Telcel operating company dominates mobile service in its home country of Mexico, with 50-60% market share as of early 2025. Mexican customers seem to like the service, with it receiving the least complaints per user among the telcos covered in Mexican regulator IFT’s report for the second trimester of 2025. A recent deal by Telefónica to sell its Mexican units may further consolidate the market dominance of América Móvil.

The company committed to security audits while giving users increased clarity and control over how it uses their data. Despite strong improvements, América Móvil fell short in some key areas. When Telcel implemented a new law requiring Mexicans to link their cell number to a government ID in early 2026, a loophole in its system temporarily exposed a large volume of subscribers’ private data, including their names, national ID number, tax ID number, and email addresses. The company pledged to notify users in data breaches, but only in cases that “current and applicable regulations instruct us to do so.”

The behavior of América Móvil’s foreign operating companies over the last two years also raised concerns. In Peru, a court had to stop its Claro subsidiary from injecting audio advertisements into phone calls, bringing attention to the company’s lack of clear rules for governing the ads carried on its networks, as well as its enforcement practices. Its Colombian operating company accessed customers’ credit history without their consent, while failing to provide a legally-mandated oral complaint channel for those same customers. Though the company disclosed that it sometimes punishes employees for misconduct that harms users, it had no commitment to provide affected users with any type of remedy.

Key Takeaways

  • América Móvil disclosed almost nothing about its use of targeted advertising.
  • Among evaluated telcos, it has the second best protocol for assessing the human rights impacts of its business, but it has a very long way to go to catch up to its business competitor Telefónica, which leads on this metric. The company had yet to integrate targeted advertising into its human rights impact assessments, or carry out systematic risk assessment on its AI or algorithmic systems.
  • The company’s transparency regarding freedom of expression was significantly weaker than in other areas, with it lacking even a clear process for enforcing its rules about customer use of its network.

Key recommendations

  • Disclose data on government demands for content and account restriction. América Móvil should release per-country numbers on these demands, including the percentage it rejects.
  • Create operational-level policies governing the development and use of artificial intelligence. América Móvil should move beyond high-level commitments by establishing concrete safeguards for the design, deployment, and oversight of AI systems.
  • Create a clear system for researchers to report security vulnerabilities. América Móvil should commit not to pursue legal actions against people who responsibly disclose problems threatening user privacy.

Services evaluated:

  • Telcel (Prepaid mobile)
  • Telcel (Postpaid mobile)
  • Operating company evaluated: Telcel (Mexico)For telecommunications companies, the RDR Index evaluates relevant policies of the parent company, the operating company, and selected services of that operating company.
  • Market cap: USD 80.08B (as of May 18, 2026)
  • BMV, based in Mexico City: AMX
  • Read more about how stock structures can be a barrier to shareholder participation
  • Website: https://www.americamovil.com

The 2026 RDR Index: Telco Giants Edition covers policies that were active on August 31, 2025. Policies that came into effect after August 31, 2025 were not evaluated for this ranking.

Scores reflect the average score across the services we evaluated, with each service weighted equally.

  • Lead researchers: Zak Rogoff, Farah Rasmi

Changes since 2022

  • América Móvil published a comprehensive global policy for responsibly handling government demands for content and account restriction, including due diligence and a commitment to push back when such demands are inappropriate.
  • It began reporting, on a country-by-country basis, how often governments request user information.
  • The company formalized a commitment to respect human rights in the development and use of artificial intelligence and to assess the impacts of its activities in that area.

Scores since 2017

100%0%20172018201920202022202621%21%25%22%32%41%
Most companies’ scores dropped between 2019 and 2020 with the inclusion of our new indicators on targeted advertising and algorithmic systems. To learn more, please visit our Methodology development archive.
Governance64%
Freedom of expression22%
Privacy43%

We rank companies on their governance, and on their policies and practices affecting freedom of expression and privacy.

Governance 64%

América Móvil committed for the first time to respect human rights in the development and use of artificial intelligence — previously it had committed vaguely to taking an “ethical” approach (G1). It demonstrated the commitment by broadening its human rights impact assessment process to clearly cover this technology (G4d). The new process also extended its scope beyond artificial intelligence, introduced more regular assessment cycles, and clarified the responsibilities for corporate leaders in considering the findings of those assessments (G4). In addition, in the area of stakeholder engagement, the company disclosed for the first time its conversations with local communities, including journalists through various channels, such as personal meetings, visits, and phone calls; however it still lacked a systematic process for engaging with digital rights advocates (G5).

Freedom of expression 22%

The company did not disclose a process for enforcing its own rules on its network (F3a) or share any data about the volume of content, accounts or ad restrictions enforced (F4a, F4b, F4c). Neither did it release any information about advertising content or ad-targeting rules (F1c, F1d). Although it published a policy in favor of net neutrality principles, its actions told a different story; it operated a zero-rating program advantaging WhatsApp, Uber, and other incumbents over competing services (F9). It disclosed a full set of policies for handling government demands for content and account restriction, including details for each type of demand source (domestic court order, foreign jurisdiction, etc.) and a commitment to push back when the demands are inappropriate (F5a).

Privacy 43%

Meeting recommendations from the company’s 2022 RDR Index evaluation, América Móvil improved more in privacy than in any other category. The company provided more information about personal information it collects (P3a, P9) and the data it algorithmically infers (P3b), while clarifying that customers can object to its use for targeted advertising (P7). It also began reporting how often governments request user data on a country-by-country basis (P11a). While it committed for the first time to regular third-party data security audits (P13), it still disclosed nothing about whether it established a platform for reporting security vulnerabilities (P14).

Indicators