We are expressly committed to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and stand for digital sovereignty, freedom from discrimination, and freedom of expression of our employees and customers.
We are committed to respect human rights and take efforts to enforce them in the context of our business operations, our suppliers, and our customers at both the global and regional levels. The basis for our conduct is the recognized standards and principles, which we have incorporated in our Code of Human Rights (pdf, 203.7 KB). As part of the digital transformation, we expand those on human rights and take responsibility for giving everyone access to digitalization, the right skill sets, the use of technologies, and the underlying innovation process. Our action areas and our activities focus on these goals.
Technology has become deeply entwined in every aspect of our lives and, as such, also affects and influences all areas of human togetherness. In this digital age, digitalization is transforming social interaction and our culture. This also becomes apparent in the debate on digital rights. As one of the leading telecommunications provider, we are aware of our responsibility in this area and accept to be subject of the corresponding rankings.
We support the opportunities that digitalization presents with regard to human rights – thanks to digitalization, many more people can take part in public discourse, exercise their freedom of expression, and draw attention to their grievances worldwide. With our activities aimed at enabling digital participation, we systematically support this goal. We are minimizing the risks that digitalization poses to human rights. One key risk involves the collection and use of data. The privacy of all people has to be protected as best as possible and the utilization of information must be fair and free of discrimination. We support this with our approaches to data privacy and security. What’s more, with our activities related to digital ethics, we are setting standards with regard to transparency and responsibility in the use of technology and handling of data.
