In early August 2024, GNI published a blog about five fundamental changes that have been made for the fifth assessment cycle to recognize the needs of our membership for a dynamic, adaptable, meaningful, and efficient assessment process that addresses the evolution of GNI, its members, and the external environment. This blog is the fifth in a series that explores each of these changes in detail. Please also see other blogs on service-related adaptations, regulatory adaptations and addressing new trends in the technology sector.
GNI’s first assessment cycle – which covered its three founding members: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo – was completed in 2013/14. Successive assessment cycles in 2015/16, 2018/19, and 2020/21 expanded to include a broader range of companies and introduced changes in the Assessment Toolkit. However, two core aspects of GNI assessments remained unchanged: first, the review and ultimate determination of companies’ good faith effort to implement the GNI Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy with improvement over time was the exclusive province of the GNI Board; and second, all company assessments within an assessment cycle were conducted simultaneously at roughly the end of each cycle’s reporting period. Following a broader, organizational strategic review conducted in 2020-2021, GNI’s Board agreed to modify these elements of the assessment process to better adapt to the changes within GNI’s membership and external developments. This blog will explore the rationale behind these changes, covering how they improve alignment between GNI’s assessment process and the aforementioned developments.
GNI was founded in 2008 by 22 members committed to advancing freedom of expression and privacy. Seventeen years later, GNI’s membership numbers over 100 experts and organizations bringing together a broad range of expertise from across industry sectors, geographic regions, and technical specialties. Drawing upon this expertise is more critical than ever to advance freedom of expression and privacy, especially given the increasingly diverse regulatory requirements and evolutions in government restrictions and demands, and as discussed in previous blogs. While GNI’s Board had grown over the years, the ratio of overall membership to those represented on the Board had nevertheless grown substantially.
To address this opportunity, the GNI Board agreed to expand participation in company assessments to the GNI’s Accountability Committee (AC), which is open to all GNI members subject to participation, confidentiality, and training requirements. Subsequent decisions by the AC and Board created the function of an “Assessment Review Task Force,” a subset of the AC formed for each company assessment in order to review the relevant assessment report and make an initial determination of a company’s good faith effort to implement the GNI Principles with improvement over time, and related recommendations. The GNI Board will subsequently review the ARTF’s initial determination, its recommendations, and the same documentation it had access to in making its final determination of a company’s good faith effort to implement the GNI Principles with improvement over time. This revised methodology and process is outlined in detail in the fifth cycle Assessment Toolkit.
When GNI was founded in 2008, assessing its three founding members at roughly the same time at the end of a GNI reporting period was relatively straightforward. However, by the fourth assessment cycle (2021/22), 11 companies underwent assessment, which concentrated a large number of assessment reviews within a short period of time. Furthermore, it was becoming clear that mandatory due diligence obligations for GNI member companies (covered in a previous blog) would be applicable at different points in time through the fifth assessment cycle.
To accommodate the growing number of GNI companies going through assessment and more effectively distribute assessment-related work over time, the Board adopted a staggered approach to the fifth assessment cycle. This approach will also help us align the timeline of GNI assessments with key regulatory timelines, where appropriate.
Based on these changes, three GNI companies underwent assessment over the second half of 2024, with the AC and Board review and determinations of these assessments taking place in the first half of 2025. Six more companies will be assessed in the first half of 2025 and the remainder in the second half of 2025 – with their respective determinations taking place within six months of their independent assessments. GNI will report on the outcomes of the Board’s final determinations in a dedicated section of its relevant 2025 and 2026 annual reports.
GNI will continue evolving its assessment process in the sixth cycle and beyond to adapt to the dynamic needs of our membership, while being responsive to external developments and incorporating new learnings from the fifth assessment cycle. In doing so, we hope that the GNI assessment process will become even more relevant and impactful in the future.