Alibaba

Alibaba commits to integrating accessible design principles, has products to accommodate users with disabilities and collects feedback on user interface obstacles. Taobao’s app, in particular, has almost 400,000 visually impaired users. Alibaba also discloses the number of its employees with disabilities. To provide digital opportunities for women and girls, the company partners with African non-profit ‘iamtheCODE’, aiming to teach computer programming to 1 million women across the globe by 2030.

Alibaba’s ‘Little Cotton-Padded Jacket Programme’ provides online and offline classes for the elderly in China. The company also partners with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on courses in Big Data and AI. Further, the company supports school connectivity through the establishment of cloud-based computer rooms in rural schools in China.

Alibaba follows good practices for making digital technologies safe and secure, such as making a commitment to cybersecurity and follows industry norms for information security monitoring. It stands out from other digital companies by making its information security management certificate publicly available.

Alibaba demonstrates support for open innovation by participating in standards organisations, having a dedicated portal for the company’s open-source projects and sharing company data with universities for research purposes. The company supports the tech start-up ecosystem through its venture capital fund and by providing digital skills training through incubator Block71. It also demonstrates high-level support for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and uses an SDG framework for measuring its goals and progress. Furthermore, the company discloses a breakdown of its CO2 emissions by scope.

There is an opportunity for the company to show how it supports universal and affordable access to digital technologies for vulnerable groups. Alibaba can also demonstrate how it distributes the wealth it creates among its stakeholders.

No evidence was found that Alibaba undertakes initiatives contributing to the development of intermediate digital skills. Additionally, the company can provide more details on whether it has any initiatives to increase school connectivity.

Although Alibaba indicates that data privacy is a material topic, it does not have a group privacy policy, nor does it disclose government requests for user information. Additionally, the company should consider making and disclosing high-level commitments to cybersecurity and child online safety.

Alibaba can demonstrate support for inclusive and ethical innovation by reporting the number of women employed in tech roles at the company and the steps it is taking to consider ethics in its research and development (R&D) activities.

Alibaba has a grievance mechanism that is accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints. However, Alibaba does not have a high-level policy document committing to respect human rights or the ILO core labour rights. The company does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks associated with its own operations and with its business relationships. Moreover, Alibaba does not engage with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations.

Alibaba publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, but it does not disclose quantitative health and safety information. Furthermore, while the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by age group, it does not report employee breakdowns against any other indicators of diversity. Alibaba is not explicit in stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. It also does not disclose the percentage of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements and does not commit to paying its workers a living wage.

While Alibaba has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints, it does not include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. The company does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Specifically, the company does not state that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures. However, Alibaba does disclose a global tax strategy.