Harnessing the power of tech to connect for good.
BT Group touches the lives of nearly every person in the UK in some way – and thousands more around the world. That’s why it’s important that we make the most of the opportunities that new technologies bring. That could be supporting healthcare, AI, security or the shift to a low carbon economy.
Successful adoption of new tech depends on public trust in both the technology and the organisations developing and deploying it.
We aim for our tech to empower people and improve their lives.
Guided by our responsible tech principles, we’ve committed to consistently develop, buy, use and sell tech in a way that benefits people and minimises harms.
Applying responsible tech principles across the value chain
Our responsible tech principles help us think carefully about how to benefit people and minimise harms – every time we develop, use, buy and sell tech.
For Good
We design and deliver tech to empower people and improve their lives.
Accountable
We are accountable for our actions and take care to avoid, and protect against, tech misuse.
Fair
We work hard to ensure everyone is treated fairly and with respect.
Open
We listen, collaborate and are transparent about our actions.
We follow the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These principles form the basis of our Human Rights Policy Commitment and is part of our risk management framework.
Our updated Being trusted: our code is our mandatory training for all colleagues and spells out our commitments on responsible tech and human rights.
And we encourage anyone with concerns about human rights in our operations to contact our Speak Up helpline.
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BT human rights: our policy commitment (pdf - 74 KB) - 09/08/2023 - New
Our Responsible Tech Steering Group oversees how we implement our tech principles. This year it continued looking into our emerging risks and strategic growth areas. It invited external experts to help define our approach to topics like children’s rights, evolving high risk markets and customers, and new products and innovation.
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Developing new tech
We apply our principles right from the start when we design new tech and we work to systematically build ethical decision-making into product design processes.
Our data ethics team and responsible tech steering group lead our thinking as we work to systematically build ethical decision-making into product design processes.
This year we:
- launched an AI accelerator – shortening new AI rollout time by over 90%, and built with security and ethics in mind
- started embedding responsible tech by design into new product development – to build trust and drive growth
- carried out a group-wide child rights impact assessment on how to protect and empower children in their digital lives, and made an action plan for the year ahead.
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We strive to only buy products and services from responsible companies – suppliers are required to meet our standards, and we monitor risks and compliance through assessments and audits.
Our procurement company, BT Sourced, has responsibility and sustainability criteria set into its processes – giving our buyers clarity on supplier risks and opportunities. This year we:
- started embedding our ‘Responsible AI for Buyers’ guide into our supplier onboarding processes
- continued to do due diligence on our suppliers.
See our Modern Slavery Statement for our responsible sourcing approach, supplier assessments, audit findings, and how we’re tackling modern slavery and conflict minerals.
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Using tech
We want to make sure our products and services are used for good. We focus on protecting privacy and free expression and helping to prevent online harms. We support the Global Network Initiative (GNI) Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy.
This year, we completed our first external GNI assessment. They said we were "making good faith efforts to implement the GNI principles with improvement over time” and also confirmed our strong commitment. They also showed us opportunities to improve our policies, oversight in overseas jurisdictions and related training and tools.
We’ve developed sets of standards in two key areas: data ethics and AI.
- Our data ethics standard sets out how we use responsible tech principles to determine what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ when deciding why and how to process data (personal or otherwise).
- We created our Responsible AI standard for building, buying and using ethical AI. It will help mitigate risk at every AI lifecycle stage – from conception to real world monitoring.
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Selling tech
We sell to customers around the world.
Through our sales due diligence process, we work to make sure that our customers use our products and services in a way that benefits people and minimises harms.
We look at what we’re selling, who the customer is, and whether our product is likely to directly or indirectly support high-risk activities. Based on what we find, we may decide to conduct a more detailed human rights impact assessment, sometimes with external support.
This year we:
- further enhanced sales due diligence in our Business unit. This will help us better identify and address potential human rights impacts of our products and services
- delivered training to our sales colleagues to help them understand the enhanced process
- reviewed our approach to evolving high risk markets and customers, and strengthened our ability to respond to them.
Protecting privacy and freedom of expression
In a digital world built on data, questions of privacy and freedom of expression become ever more complex. We’re all leaving data trails every minute of the day through our interactions online, how we reveal ourselves on social media, where we travel with our mobile, the surveilled streets that we walk and drive down, even the routes that we take when we’re meandering around the supermarket aisles.
Fighting modern slavery
Modern slavery is one of the scourges of our age. We go to extensive lengths to make sure we don’t work with suppliers that engage in this abhorrent behaviour. And we delve deep into the different layers of our supply chain in our efforts to uncover any unsavoury practices that might be feeding into our products, services, or operations.
Child rights in the digital environment
As a company serving families and those caring for children across the UK, we understand that children’s lives are increasingly playing out in the digital world.
While many child rights issues are also human rights issues affecting everyone, children merit dedicated attention because they are still developing, and they need support to protect their rights and encourage their empowerment. That is why we continually review our impact on children’s rights and safety in the digital environment.
