Telecommunications companies

Orange SA

Rank: 8th
Score: 26%

Headquartered in France, Orange provides mobile, landline, broadband, mobile financial services, and B2B services. With 253 million customers in 26 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Orange is one of the largest mobile telecommunications companies in the world.

Orange once again ranked as the worst-performing European telco. It failed to make any notable progress in keeping users informed about the policies and practices affecting their human rights. Outside of Europe, the company operates mainly in countries in both Africa and the Middle East where governments routinely resort to shutdowns and censorship. This includes the Republic of Congo, where an internet blackout coincided with the presidential election in March 2021, lasting for three days. In both 2021 and 2022, internet access was disrupted on more than one occasion in Burkina Faso amid political unrest, including on Orange’s networks. The company did take steps to improve its policy for handling government demands for network shutdown by disclosing a non-exhaustive list of reasons for which it may restrict access to networks and specific services. But this policy still lacked transparency, and Orange failed to commit to push back against these kinds of demands.

In Belgium, Orange is seeking to acquire VOO and Brutélé, both providers of fixed and mobile telecommunication services. The potential acquisition has prompted the European Commission to open an in-depth investigation to ensure it complies with the EU Merger Regulation. We could not verify whether the company conducted a human rights impact assessment of this proposed acquisition. In its 2021 Vigilance Plan, the company failed to clearly state that it conducts due diligence on acquisitions.

Last year, Orange announced the creation of a Data and AI Ethics Council “to support the company’s implementation of ethical principles governing the use of data and Artificial Intelligence technologies.’’ Despite stating that it adheres to such principles, Orange fell short of articulating an explicit policy commitment to human rights in the development and use of algorithmic systems.

Key takeaways

  • Orange continued to score worse than its European peers and fell behind MTN in the Telco Giants Scorecard. It disclosed some robust governance processes, like mechanisms for implementing its commitments to freedom of expression and information as well as privacy within the company. But it failed to provide any information about whether it conducts due diligence to identify how its processes for policy enforcement affect users’ fundamental rights to freedom of expression and information, to privacy, and to non-discrimination.
  • The company was not transparent about its handling of government censorship and surveillance demands and disclosed nothing about how it responds to private requests to restrict content and accounts or hand over user information.
  • Orange failed to provide sufficient information about how it secures user information. It disclosed that it limits employee access to user information, but it did not say whether it commissions third-party security audits. It also did not disclose a policy for handling data breaches.

Key recommendations

  • Commit to net neutrality. Orange should commit not to prioritize, block, or delay certain types of traffic, applications, protocols, or content for any reason beyond assuring quality of service and network reliability.
  • Clarify privacy policies. Orange should clarify its policies on the handling of user information, including how it collects this information, what information it infers, and how long it retains it. The company should also provide users with options to control the collection, inference, and retention of their information.
  • Expand the scope of human rights impact assessments. Orange should conduct human rights impact assessments on its zero-rating programs, its use and development of algorithmic systems, and its targeted advertising policies.

Services evaluated:

  • Orange France (Prepaid mobile)
  • Orange France (Postpaid mobile)
  • Orange France (Fixed-line broadband)
  • Operating company evaluated: Orange FranceFor telecommunications companies, the RDR Index evaluates relevant policies of the parent company, the operating company, and selected services of that operating company.
  • Market cap: $31.30 billion (as of November 4, 2022)
  • ENXTPA, based in Paris: ORA
  • Read more about how stock structures can be a barrier to shareholder participation
  • Website: https://www.orange.fr

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: Veszna Wessenauer, Afef Abrougui

Changes since 2020

  • Orange’s policy of conducting additional evaluations when its assessments identify human rights risks was outdated. In the 2020 RDR Index, the company obtained full credit on this indicator because of relevant disclosures in the company’s GNI principles report, published in 2018. No similar disclosures have been made since.
  • The company shared a non-exhaustive list of reasons why it may restrict access to networks and to specific services.
  • Orange stopped disclosing what user information its customers can obtain.

Scores since 2017

100%0%2017201820192020202232%33%36%27%26%
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.
Governance65%
Freedom of expression10%
Privacy23%

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

Governance 65%

While Orange was the only company with an overall decline in the governance category, it still received the third-highest score in this category. It provided less information on due diligence and it was no longer clear about whether it conducts additional evaluations when its assessments identify human rights risks (G4a). It shared an explicit commitment to freedom of expression and privacy as well as strong governance management oversight of human rights issues (G2). It also disclosed training and whistleblower programs (G3) to help ensure the implementation of its human rights commitments. The company provided strong evidence of conducting robust human rights impact assessment in relation to government regulations, existing products and services, and new activities, though it was less exhaustive with regard to the latter (G4a). But it disclosed nothing about conducting similar assessments of its own policy enforcement, or of its targeted advertising, algorithmic systems, or zero-rating programs (G4b, G4c, G4d, G4e).

Freedom of expression 10%

Orange was among the least transparent companies in this category, sharing very little evidence of commitments to respect the right to freedom of expression and information. While it shared the types of content and activities it does not permit (F3a), it said nothing about its ad-content and ad-targeting rules (F3b, F3c). It disclosed information about how it handles government censorship demands, but it was unclear about whether this process applied to both non-judicial government demands and court orders (F5a). It did not publish any data about the nature or number of these demands (F6).

Privacy 23%

Orange performed worse in this category than all its European peers, as well as AT&T and MTN. Its progress declined after it stopped providing information about what user information its customers can obtain (P8). Though it disclosed which user information it collects, it failed to specify how (P3a). It did not clarify what user information it infers (P3b) and shares, or for which purposes. It lacked transparency about its process for responding to government surveillance demands (P10a), failing to disclose how it responds to court orders.