Akamai

Akamai demonstrates support for organisations focused on increasing the digital inclusivity of women and girls.

Akamai supports the development of basic digital skills through funding organisations such as Girls Who Code. The company also funded wi-fi hotspots in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic to support online learning.

Akamai follows industry norms for monitoring and responding to information security incidents and for management of information security risks. The company also provides evidence that its products have features that can block content that is sensitive to children.

Akamai is strongly committed to open innovation evidenced by its efforts to provide tools and resources via one platform. The company is also committed to reducing its environmental footprint, both through its operations and via product innovation. For example, Akamai discloses its emissions data across all scopes.

Little evidence was found of activities to make digital technologies widely available, affordable and accessible. Akamai could provide more information about the women and girls that benefited from the company’s grants to non-profits. While the company discloses how much money it invests in communities, it could also report on how it distributes its direct economic value among its stakeholders.

Akamai has an opportunity to increase its efforts in developing digital skills and providing school connectivity. While evidence of support for organisations advancing basic digital skills exists, the company could disclose more information about beneficiaries of the programmes it funds.

Akamai should demonstrate how it meets best practice in assigning senior-level oversight and accountability for cybersecurity and in reporting security incidents. Although Akamai reports that it holds information security management certifications for multiple locations, it has an opportunity to follow industry best practice by providing copies of these certificates. As a digital company with a role in managing a significant share of global data flows and security expertise, Akamai should make a high-level commitment to online safety for children. Similarly, it should apply the same privacy rules in all operating countries.

Akamai has an opportunity to increase its contribution to inclusive, sustainable and ethical innovation. It could provide support for academic and non-profit research as well as for technology innovation ecosystems. The company could also disclose the gender breakdown of its research and development employees. Akamai should demonstrate how it applies ethical research and development principles.

Akamai commits to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights and has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The company has a grievance mechanism for both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights complaints and concerns. However, Akamai does not disclose a process to identify, assess, and take action on salient human rights risks in its own operations and business relationships. Furthermore, the company does not engage with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations.

Akamai publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers but does not disclose quantitative health and safety information, such as the rate of high-consequence work-related injuries. The company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, Akamai does not have a publicly available commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Furthermore, it does not disclose against any other indicators of diversity per employee category. Finally, the company is not explicit in stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours.

Akamai prohibits bribery and corruption and has a confidential grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise bribery and corruption concerns and complaints. Furthermore, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. While Akamai has a global tax strategy and discloses the income taxes it pays in three categories – federal, state and foreign – it does not disclose income tax payments for all tax jurisdictions. The company does disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. However, it does not specify that it does not make political contributions and it does not publicly disclose its lobbying expenditures.

The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.