Telecommunications companies

Vodafone Group Plc.

Rank: 2nd
Score: 41%

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Vodafone Group provides mobile, fixed-line, and other telephony and internet services across 22 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In late 2022, the company had 114 million mobile subscribers in Europe and 185 million in Africa.

Facing continued pressure from investors over its financial performance, Vodafone has been restructuring, engaging in deals to merge some of its businesses and sell others. In May 2022, United Arab Emirates-based telecommunications and technology group e& (formerly known as Etisalat and also evaluated in the Telco Giants Scorecard) bought a 9.8% stake in the company for $4.4 billion.

In August, the company announced a non-binding agreement to sell its Hungarian business to a local company with close ties to the government, a move seen as helping Prime Minister Viktor Orbán consolidate his influence over the telecom industry. Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea (Vi), the India-based telco of which Vodafone Group is a minority shareholder (47.61%), approved a plan that would make the Indian government its largest shareholder, with plans to divest at a later time. As of late 2022, Vi was India’s third-largest telecom operator but had been experiencing a steady decline in its subscriber base. This acquisition comes amidst the Indian government’s unexpected withdrawal of a proposed data protection bill in the world’s fastest growing internet market.

Vodafone, like other European telcos we rank, launched a trial of TrustPid “supercookies” in spring of this year. TrustPid attaches tokens to users based on IP addresses and is considered an alternative to third-party tracking. While Vodafone is seeking to expand its targeted advertising business, it has continued to fail at providing clear information about its targeted advertising rules.

The company dealt with a number of incidents related to weak security in 2022. It faced a cyberattack that briefly disrupted its services in Portugal but which did not result in any customer data being compromised. More than 20 million Vodafone users in India were allegedly affected by a data breach due to vulnerabilities in the company’s systems. Since 2018, Vodafone has been the only company to share a comprehensive policy for responding to data breaches, including a commitment to notify authorities and affected users.

Key takeaways

  • Vodafone was one of three companies to experience an overall decline in its score. It shared less information about both its processes for responding to private requests for content or account restrictions and its time frame for reviewing reports of vulnerabilities.
  • Once again, Vodafone had the second-highest overall governance score among telcos, after Telefónica. Vodafone and Telefónica continued to be the only companies with an explicit commitment to protecting human rights in their development and use of algorithmic systems.
  • Despite moving to expand its targeted advertising business, Vodafone did not provide clear information about its advertising content and targeting rules.

Key recommendations

  • Improve human rights due diligence. Vodafone should demonstrate that it carries out human rights impact assessments on its various services, the enforcement of its policies, and its use of algorithms, targeted advertising, and zero-rating programs.
  • Clarify ad rules. Vodafone should disclose clear advertising content and targeting rules, including specifying which ad content it does not permit. This should include clarifying that advertisers cannot target specific individuals. The company should also explain its processes for enforcing its rules.
  • Improve transparency about third-party demands for user information. Vodafone should commit to notifying users of requests for their information made by government and private entities. It should also provide more detailed data on government demands to access user information and disclose a clear process for responding to private requests for user information.

Services evaluated:

  • Vodafone UK (Prepaid mobile)
  • Vodafone UK (Postpaid mobile)
  • Vodafone UK (Fixed-line broadband)
  • Operating company evaluated: Vodafone UKFor telecommunications companies, the RDR Index evaluates relevant policies of the parent company, the operating company, and selected services of that operating company.
  • Market cap: $33.25 billion (as of November 4, 2022)
  • LSE, based in London: VOD
  • Read more about how stock structures can be a barrier to shareholder participation
  • Website: https://www.vodafone.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: Veszna Wessenauer, Afef Abrougui

Changes since 2020

  • Vodafone stopped sharing its time frame for reviewing reports of security vulnerabilities.
  • Vodafone improved its security score by publishing a Cyber security web page, in which it clearly states that it conducts independent security audits on a regular basis.
  • Vodafone updated its transparency report after two years. The most recent report covers 2019–20.
  • Vodafone no longer made available information about its process and basis for responding to private requests for content or account restriction.

Scores since 2017

100%0%2017201820192020202248%52%52%42%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.
Governance68%
Freedom of expression29%
Privacy38%

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

Governance 68%

Vodafone had the second-highest overall governance score among telcos. But it did not make any improvements in this category since the 2020 RDR Index. It continued to lag behind many of its peers in human rights due diligence and did not share whether its assessments covered risks and impacts associated with existing services, policy enforcement, algorithms, targeted advertising, or zero-rating programs, including Vodafone Passes (G4b, G4c, G4d, G4e).

Freedom of expression 29%

Vodafone continued to share more about its policies and practices affecting freedom of expression and information than any other telco, with the exception of Telefónica. But it still did not provide information on advertising content and targeting policies beyond stating that it enables third parties to target its users with advertising content (F3b, F3c).

Privacy 38%

Vodafone earned the fourth-best privacy score among telcos. It relaunched its reporting of data on government demands to access user information (P11a). While Vodafone once again revealed more about how it protects the security of users’ data than any other telco, it was less clear about how it addresses security vulnerabilities than it was in the 2020 RDR Index (P14).