Introduction

Over the past decade, the practice of issuing transparency reports has become common for companies across different industries in the United States. These reports serve as a valuable mechanism for companies to demonstrate greater accountability around their operations and policies to the public and lawmakers.

Today, companies and organizations issue transparency reports on a range of issue areas including government requests for user information, content moderation, safety, quality, and sustainability efforts. Through these reports, companies and organizations provide statistical and qualitative information regarding how they treat their customers and stakeholders, how they handle their customers’ information, and how the companies’ operations affect their communities.

This report builds on an event held by New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) on December 4, 2019 that highlighted the value of transparency reporting across different industries, and the lessons companies and organizations have learned while developing and expanding these reports. In particular, the panel event focused on transparency reports that cover government requests for user data, content moderation, user safety, and quality of services. The panelists for this event included Allen Kachalia, senior vice president of patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine; David Lieber, senior privacy policy counsel at Google; Rana Kortam, global women’s safety policy manager at Uber; and Spandana Singh, policy analyst at OTI. The panel was moderated by Tonya Riley, technology and cybersecurity researcher at the Washington Post.¹

The discussion covered the varying definitions of transparency across industries; the need for standardization in transparency reporting; and the benefits, risks, and challenges of transparency reporting and transparency efforts in general.

Editorial disclosure: This project received financial support from Uber, and it discusses policies by Google, which is a funder of New America’s work. New America is guided by the principles of full transparency, independence, and accessibility in all its activities and partnerships. New America does not engage in research or educational activities directed or influenced in any way by financial supporters. View our full list of donors at www.newamerica.org/our-funding.