A decade on from the initial launch of Access Now’s Transparency Reporting Index (TRI), we are revamping the TRI to reflect the current environment of voluntary reporting and to highlight trends in transparency. This refresh updates our methodology to reflect the current reality: it’s not only government requests for our data, but also companies’ own approaches to issues like content moderation that put people’s human rights at risk.
Below we look at how transparency reporting has evolved, the trends we’ve observed, and what happens next.
How it started
We launched the TRI in 2014, in the wake of the Snowden revelations. At the time, the practice of transparency reporting was a novel form of disclosure designed to shed light on the relationship between the private sector and government authorities. Our index was a way to help the digital rights community find and analyze all the voluntary reports tech companies had begun to release to explain how they responded to government requests for people’s data.
Today, the tech sector has evolved, and so has transparency reporting. While government surveillance online remains an enormous threat to people’s rights, digital platforms themselves can expose people to severe human rights risks. People need to know what companies do with their data and how platforms make decisions about their content. Responsible investors look to these disclosures to measure companies’ human rights compliance.
How it’s going
When we first launched the TRI, transparency reports mostly focused on law enforcement requests for people’s data or removal of their content. As a consequence, we initially included only companies that published data on government requests. Today, we include any company that discloses information on either government requests or a company’s own content moderation and enforcement practices.
We’ve seen some encouraging trends over the past 10 years. In addition to providing information on government demands, a number of companies are increasingly reporting on issues related to both freedom of expression and privacy, and on unique topics, such as Uber’s public health reports and Google’s reporting on cases that may be of the public interest. More companies outside North America and Europe are also releasing transparency reports, with new reports from firms in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including MTN, MercadoLibre, and Kakao. At the same time, we’re seeing new reports from smaller tech companies, and companies outside the tech sector — a promising development, as more and more companies and organizations are collecting our data or otherwise engaging in activities that implicate our rights. Finally, the reporting requirements of the EU’s Digital Services Act have also given a boost to the practice of transparency.
But there is still plenty of room for improvement. Some companies have increased the frequency and comprehensiveness of their transparency reports, but others have regressed, becoming stagnant on their reporting. We’ve also seen backsliding. For example, when X (formerly known as Twitter) released a transparency report in September 2024 that covered the period of Q1-Q2, 2021, the company also removed all reports that had been released since 2011 under the previous ownership — a clear attempt to reduce transparency and accountability.
We would also like to see more companies that collect people’s data, such as streaming services and financial transaction apps, release transparency reports. For example, Spotify is a leading platform for music and a host and producer of podcasts, and it could set an important precedent in the sector by releasing transparency reports and detailing its content moderation policies. To date, the company has been silent on any such plans. Similarly, PayPal and Venmo could shed light on an industry that has been a black box of arbitrary takedowns and blockings by releasing transparency reports.
What’s next: addressing the trust gap
At a time when people’s trust in companies that hold our data has severely eroded, we want to see more companies step up to the plate and release transparency reports — a practice that not only provides an important tool for civil society to push back against government abuse and hold repressive governments to account, but also helps companies get their house in order and build trust through a robust and ongoing review process.
After more than a decade of transparency reporting in the tech sector, established companies should be operating at the highest standards of best practice, and emerging companies should prioritize transparency reporting in their operations from the outset. The TRI will continue to act as a repository for these reports and a tool for advocates working to raise the floor for human rights respect across the private sector.
We strive to maintain an accurate index. Please contact us at info@accessnow.org with any suggested changes or additions.