New technology must earn trust and transform life for the better

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.

Our responsible tech principles are:

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 apply our responsible tech principles across our value chain. They help us consider how to minimise harm and benefit people every time we develop, buy, use or sell tech. They’re grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and form part of our approach to risk management

Being trusted: our code training is mandatory training for all our people and spells out our commitments on responsible tech and human rights.

And as part of our commitment to identify and remedy harms, we encourage anyone with concerns about human rights in our operations to contact our Speak Up helpline.

The Responsible Business Committee – a BT Group plc Board committee – oversees progress on our human rights programme. Day-to-day, our human rights team works on the integration of the UN Guiding Principles in our business, including training and supporting the teams which implement our policy in our business units and regions. Our Group Corporate Affairs Director (a member of our Executive Committee) makes decisions on any human rights matter which can’t be resolved at an operational level. 

We recognise situations can change. That’s why we periodically engage with internal and external stakeholders and conduct regular human rights due diligence and impact assessments to identify and assess emerging and enduring human rights risks. Based on these, we make changes to our processes and operations to mitigate our impact. We track the measures we put in place, from product development through to the point of sale.

For example, we have conducted a group-wide digital child rights impact assessment as well as country and product-specific human rights impact assessments. We continue to act on the recommendations.

Responsible business - Human rights due diligence
Responsible business - Human rights due diligence

Putting our principles into practice when we…

  • We apply our principles right from the start when we design new tech and we work to systematically build human rights due diligence 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 includes work such as completing human rights impact assessments developing a playbook for our people to embed responsible tech principles into their designs to enable responsible innovation and progressing our approach to children’s digital rights.

  • We strive to only buy products and services from responsible companies – suppliers are required to meet our policies & standards, and we monitor risks and compliance through assessments and audits.

    This includes work such as reviewing human rights risk in our supply chain, continued due diligence on our direct Tier 1 manufacturing supply chain and expanding our ‘worker’s voice’ survey to better understand the experience of those working in our supply chain.

    Our procurement company, BT Sourced, has responsibility and sustainability criteria set into its processes. They give our buyers clarity on supplier risks and opportunities.

    See our Modern Slavery Statement for our responsible sourcing approach, supplier assessments, audit findings, and how we’re tackling modern slavery and conflict minerals.

  • 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 have a due diligence process to identify where we use higher risk technology in BT Group. Cross-functional teams assess potential impacts and act on identified risks.

    This includes work such as developing  AI guidance for our people to help them manage AI risks and stay in line with regulation, and ensuring our Consumer Data Principles are aligned to our responsible tech principles.

  • 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.

Partnerships

Partnerships and collaboration are key to creating a responsible tech ecosystem that drives trust and enables growth. We work closely with organisations such as the UN Global Compact Climate and Human Rights Working Group, the UN B-Tech project, the RBA and JAC as well as partnering with experts in the field such as BSR, Labour Solutions and Threefold.

We have been recognised for our work in this space and were rated as a top performing company in Europe, and in the global telecoms sector, by the 2024 Global Child Forum Benchmark Report.

University students sitting outside on steps

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, use of social media, where we travel with our mobile, or the surveilled streets that we walk and drive down.

Ariel street view

Fighting modern slavery

We believe that everyone is entitled to basic rights and freedoms, whoever they are and wherever they live. That’s why we’re against all forms of modern slavery, everywhere. We are committed to identifying and eliminating any form of modern slavery within our operations and supply chains to ensure ethical and fair practices.

Family sitting on a sofa

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 review our impact on children’s rights and safety in the digital environment.

Woman wearing headset monitoring screens

Responsible AI

At BT Group, our ambition is to be the most trusted connector of people, business and society. We are clear on the role we want to play in harnessing AI for a brighter future for everyone.

Combining human and artificial intelligence, we want to use the power of AI in a safe and ethical manner to unlock value for our customers and people in alignment with our purpose to ‘connect for good'.