Akamai

Akamai supports organisations focused on developing tech skills of young women to prepare them for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.

Akamai supports the development of coding skills for young women in India. The company also funded an initiative to provide laptops for schools 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 managing information security risks. The company also considers data privacy important and has a group policy.

Akamai is strongly committed to open innovation, as evidenced by its efforts to provide tools and resources. The company is also committed to reducing its environmental footprint in its operations as well as through product innovation.

Little evidence was found of Akamai’s activities to make digital technologies widely available, affordable and accessible. The company can provide more information about the women and girls that have benefited from the company’s grants to non-profits. While the company discloses how much money it invests in communities, it can also report how it distributes its direct economic value generated among its stakeholders, as well as its taxes paid and employment in its markets of operation. The company can also report the proportion of its employees with disabilities and the steps it takes to create an inclusive workplace for them.

Akamai has an opportunity to increase its efforts in developing digital skills and providing school connectivity. While there is evidence of the company’s support for organisations advancing basic digital skills, the company can disclose more information about who benefits from the programmes it funds.

Although Akamai reports that it holds information security management certifications for multiple locations, it has an opportunity to follow industry best practice by providing public copies of these certificates. The company should also report the number of data breaches. Further, 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 child online safety.

Akamai has an opportunity to increase its contribution to inclusive, sustainable and ethical innovation. For instance, it can provide support for academic and non-profit research as well as for the tech start-up ecosystem. The company can also disclose the number of women employed in tech roles at the company. Additionally, Akamai can better demonstrate how it applies ethical principles in its R&D activities.

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

Akamai publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety 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, it does not have a publicly available commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. Furthermore, it does not disclose the number of employees against any other indicators of diversity per employee category. The company is also not explicit in stating that it does not require workers to work more than the 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 business relationship contracts. While Akamai has a publicly available global tax strategy and discloses the income taxes it pays in three categories – federal, state and foreign – it does not disclose its 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.