Telecommunications companies

Telefónica, S.A.

Rank: 1st
Score: 57%

Headquartered in Spain, Telefónica provides mobile and fixed-line broadband and telephony to more than 369 million customers in Europe and Latin America.

Telefónica implemented a number of recommendations from our previous ranking and, for the first time, led its peers in all three of our categories. It made a new commitment to assessing the human rights impacts of its use of both targeted advertising and zero rating. But this year, Telefónica pulled out from the primary multi-stakeholder organization dedicated to human rights in the tech and telecom sectors, the Global Network Initiative (GNI). Telefónica has lost access to an important forum for tech and telecom companies committed to protecting users from inappropriate government demands.

In an action that appears to contradict its strong policies protecting user privacy, the company joined other telcos in requesting that policymakers stop the rollout of Apple’s Private Relay, software which keeps telcos and websites from seeing iPhone users’ browsing data. Telefónica is also participating in TrustPID, a new technology that allows telcos to attach unique IDs to web users for tracking and ad targeting. Similar to the controversial “supercookie” deployed by U.S. telco Verizon in 2016, TrustPID gives telcos a new way to engage in targeted advertising. As privacy concerns and protections diminish the use of third-party tracking cookies, TrustPID may take up the work of identifying internet users for advertising, particularly in Europe.

Telefónica is still the only company we rank that both made a clear commitment to human rights with regard to algorithmic systems and disclosed the policies it has in place to meet it. Room for improvement remained, however. Telefónica provided insufficient control to users in determining how their data was employed in developing these algorithmic systems. It also failed to explain how it employs algorithmic systems to identify violations of its policies by its users.

Key takeaways

  • Telefónica's departure from the multi-stakeholder GNI limited its opportunities for stakeholder engagement, but the company broke new ground in the industry by unveiling due diligence processes focused on targeted ads and zero rating.
  • For the first time, Telefónica topped our rankings in privacy—in addition to leading on freedom of expression and governance.
  • It disclosed less comprehensive security measures than peers Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.
  • Telefónica was the only company to publish a commitment to human rights in AI, coupled with operational-level policies governing its development and use.

Key recommendations

  • Reinstitute accountability and consultation mechanisms. Now that Telefónica has left GNI, it should find new avenues for systematic stakeholder interaction.
  • Improve on security. Telefónica should continue improving its security policies. In particular, it should implement stronger commitments to mitigate harm to users affected by data breaches.
  • Give users more control. Telefónica should give users more options to limit how it uses their information.

Services evaluated:

  • Movistar (Prepaid mobile)
  • Movistar (Postpaid mobile)
  • Movistar (Fixed-line broadband)
  • Operating company evaluated: Telefónica SpainFor telecommunications companies, the RDR Index evaluates relevant policies of the parent company, the operating company, and selected services of that operating company.
  • Market cap: $24.83 billion (as of November 4, 2022)
  • BME, based in Madrid: TEF
  • Read more about how stock structures can be a barrier to shareholder participation
  • Website: https://www.telefonica.com

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: Zak Rogoff

Changes since 2020

  • Telefónica released, for the first time, a commitment to assess the risks to privacy, freedom of expression, and anti-discrimination of its targeted advertising activities and zero-rating practices.
  • Telefónica left the Global Network Initiative.
  • The company clarified its policy of refusing all private requests for user information and for the restriction of content and accounts.
  • The company made its policies about algorithmic systems and ad targeting easier to find and understand.

Scores since 2017

100%0%2017201820192020202233%41%57%49%57%
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.
Governance85%
Freedom of expression42%
Privacy57%

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

Governance 85%

Telefónica was the only company ranked by RDR (including in the Big Tech Scorecard) to perform human rights impact assessments on all the topics covered by our standards: the effects of laws in the jurisdictions where it operates (G4a), enforcement of company policies (G4b), targeted advertising (G4c), algorithmic systems (G4d), and zero rating (G4e). Despite its leadership on governance, it is no longer a member of GNI (G5), the best existing corporate accountability mechanism protecting users from inappropriate government demands. To further improve its score, Telefónica must clarify its processes for mitigating human rights harms reported to the company by its users (G6a).

Indicators

Freedom of expression 42%

Telefónica was one of only five ranked companies to clearly commit to net neutrality (F9). It published the rules it enforces on its systems, including for advertisers on its Movistar+ TV platform (F3). However, some rules were overbroad and Telefónica did not publish any data about how often it enforced these policies (F4). It was the only telco we rank that published operational-level policies addressing the use of algorithmic systems across its services (F1d). The company was transparent about its due diligence process for addressing government blocking demands (F5a). It had a policy in place of denying any such demands from private entities (F5b).

Privacy 57%

For the first time, Telefónica outperformed Deutsche Telekom in this area and earned the highest privacy score among the telcos we rank. Telefónica stood out for its transparency and due diligence around government demands for user information, which can strongly impact human rights (P10a, P11a). Compared to other telcos, the company had clear and comprehensive policies governing data collection and use. Its policies addressed often-neglected issues such as inference of user information (P3b) and algorithmic system development (P1b). But it did not provide users with enough options for controlling the information it collects from them (P7). Further, it remained relatively weak on security, particularly with regard to instituting measures that would protect external security researchers (P13) and mitigate harm to users affected by data breaches (P15).