Telecommunications companies

Bharti Airtel Limited

Rank: 9th
Score: 15%

Headquartered in India, Airtel provides mobile, fixed-line broadband, and voice services in India and 15 other countries in South Asia and Africa. With a global user base of 497 million, it is the second-largest mobile operator in India.

At the end of last year, India’s mobile market reached one billion active subscribers, joining China’s as one of only two markets to reach this number. For years, India has also been the country with the highest number of government-ordered network shutdowns. India’s central, state, and local governments have ordered shutdowns in response to violence and protests. They claimed the shutdowns were meant to address public emergencies and protect public safety. But government actors have also ordered shutdowns for non-urgent administrative purposes, such as preventing cheating on exams for entry into government jobs. Although the Indian government has ordered almost 700 shutdowns since 2012, Airtel continued to provide almost no information or data to the public about how it handles such orders. This fall, the Department of Telecommunications of India released the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022. The bill has already been criticized for providing the government with expansive new shutdown and surveillance powers.

In August, the Indian government unexpectedly withdrew its controversial 2019 draft of a new personal data protection law, following accusations from privacy advocates and some lawmakers that the bill would have given the government too much power over user data. But this decision has also prolonged the wait for new national legislation to safeguard people’s privacy in the country with the fastest-growing population of internet users in the world.

Airtel shared little about how it handles and protects user information and gave users few options to control the use of their data. Regulations such as India’s Information Technology Rules do discourage companies from sharing adequate details about some government orders for user information. But there are no laws or regulations stopping companies from disclosing processes for handling third-party demands for content removal or for user information. Still, Airtel disclosed almost nothing about such demands.

Key takeaways

  • Among the telcos ranked by RDR, Airtel provided the least information about its policies and practices affecting users’ freedom of expression.
  • Airtel revealed the existence of a human rights impact assessment system to evaluate the potential human rights risks of its operations, but the company did not clarify on what issues it conducts these assessments.
  • Airtel shared almost no information about how it responds to government demands for content or account removals, shutdowns, or user information. It also did not reveal any data pertaining to the demands it did receive.

Key recommendations

  • Improve governance of human rights. Airtel should significantly strengthen its governance of human rights issues and begin directly engaging with stakeholders on these issues.
  • Release comprehensive transparency reports. Airtel should publish a clear transparency report covering, at a minimum, government demands for user data, to block content, and for network shutdowns.
  • Be transparent about user information and how it is handled. Airtel should provide more detail on how it collects, infers, and retains user information. The company should also give users more options to access and control their own information.

Services evaluated:

  • Airtel India (Prepaid mobile)
  • Airtel India (Postpaid mobile)
  • Airtel India (Fixed-line broadband)
  • Operating company evaluated: Airtel IndiaFor telecommunications companies, the RDR Index evaluates relevant policies of the parent company, the operating company, and selected services of that operating company.
  • Market cap: $45.51 billion (as of November 4, 2022)
  • BSE, based in Bombay: 532454
  • Read more about how stock structures can be a barrier to shareholder participation
  • Website: https://www.airtel.in

The 2022 Telco Giants Scorecard covers policies that were active on June 1, 2022. Policies that came into effect after June 1, 2022, were not evaluated for this scorecard.

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

  • Lead researchers: Jie Zhang

Changes since 2020

  • Airtel stopped disclosing whether users could delete any of the personal information that the company retains on them.
  • The company disclosed that its information security systems undergo regular external auditing and that it received ISO certificates. Its updated privacy policy did not state if it still limits or monitors employee access to user information, as it had previously.
  • Airtel added an email address to its privacy policy for the public to submit security vulnerabilities identified on its services, apps, or website.

Scores since 2017

100%0%2017201820192020202214%15%16%15%15%
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.
Governance27%
Freedom of expression2%
Privacy19%

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

Governance 27%

Airtel was opaque about its governance processes related to freedom of expression and privacy. The company committed to respecting human rights (G1) and disclosed that it conducts annual human rights due diligence across its operations. But it failed to specify what human rights risks it assesses (G4). There was still no evidence that Airtel engages with civil society on freedom of expression or privacy issues (G5).

Freedom of expression 2%

As the least transparent company on policies and practices affecting users’ freedom of expression, Airtel offered only limited information about its process for restricting content or accounts (F3a). It did not release any policies guiding the use of targeted advertising or advertising content (F1b, F1c, F2b, F2c, F3b, F3c). The company was silent about how it handles government demands and private requests for removing content or accounts (F5a, F5b). It also failed to publish any relevant data about the nature or volume of content or accounts restricted by the company, either to enforce its own policies or to comply with third-party requests (F4, F6, F7).

Privacy 19%

Airtel performed significantly better on privacy than it did on freedom of expression, but its overall transparency on privacy was still weak. It offered some information about how it collects user information (P3a) and then shares that information (P4). The company provided very limited options for users to access (P8) or control (P7) their data. It revealed nothing about how long it retains user information (P6) or about what measures it has in place to handle potential data breaches (P15). It was almost completely silent about how it manages third-party requests for user information (P10a, P10b, P11a, P11b).