Human Rights Assessment of the Software-as-a-Service Sector

Authors

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  Lale Tekişalp

  Associate Director, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

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  Lale Tekişalp

  Associate Director, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

  San Francisco

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  Lale works with BSR member companies across industries to incorporate human rights into business operations and strategy. She focuses on the intersection of human rights and technology, and she leads the Tech Against Trafficking collaborative initiative.

  Prior to BSR, Lale worked with the Partnership on AI to help build its AI for Social Good strategy. Previously, she held several different marketing roles at Microsoft, where she played a key role in establishing the company's cloud business across Turkey, the Middle East, and Africa.

  Lale holds a MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where she focused on responsible business and social sector leadership. She received a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

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  Recent Insights From Lale Tekişalp

  • A Launchpad for Action: Key Tech and Human Trafficking Priorities in 2025 / December 19, 2024 / Blog
  • An Impact-Based Approach to Responsible AI / October 10, 2024 / Blog
  • Responsible and Sustainable AI / June 4, 2024 / Audio
  • Building an Effective Supply Chain Data Ecosystem to Prevent Forced Labor / April 24, 2024 / Blog
  • A Business Guide to Responsible and Sustainable AI / March 27, 2024 / Insights+

  Full Bio

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  Faraz Ansari

  Associate, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

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  Faraz Ansari

  Associate, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

  New York

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  Faraz works with BSR member companies across industries in human rights and technology.

  Prior to BSR, Faraz was an Advocacy Fellow at Access Now, where he contributed to digital rights campaigns. Previously, he worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Human Rights Initiative, where he researched business, human rights, and technology.

  Faraz holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in International Law and Economic Policy. Prior to SAIS, he graduated from the Ohio State University, where he served as a John Glenn Fellow at the US Department of Justice and as a Critical Language Fellow at the US Department of State.

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  Recent Insights From Faraz Ansari

  • A Human Rights Impact Assessment of Twitch / April 18, 2023 / Blog
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  • Advancing Human Rights in the SaaS Sector / May 12, 2022 / Blog
  • Human Rights Assessment of the Software-as-a-Service Sector / May 12, 2022 / Reports

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  Hannah Darnton

  Director, Technology and Human Rights, BSR

  

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  Hannah Darnton

  Director, Technology and Human Rights, BSR

  

  San Francisco

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  Hannah works with multinational companies to align business and human rights strategies and facilitate incorporation of sustainable practices into business operations across sectors.

  She focuses on the intersection of human rights and new, disruptive technology and leads the Tech Against Trafficking collaborative initiative.

  Prior to joining BSR, Hannah worked with the Skoll Foundation, where she co-led the portfolio and investments team’s efforts to identify social entrepreneurs with the potential to drive large-scale social change. Her work led to over US$20 million in grants and investments between 2015 and 2018. Before Skoll, Hannah spent six years working in anti-human trafficking in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Bay Area. She is fluent in French.

  Hannah holds a Master’s in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Oxfam’s Women in Small Enterprise initiative and Convening17.

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  Recent Insights From Hannah Darnton

  • The Human Rights Impacts of AI / June 4, 2024 / Audio
  • The EU AI Act: 11 Recommendations for Business / May 21, 2024 / Blog
  • The EU AI Act: What It Means for Your Business / April 25, 2024 / Blog
  • A Business Guide to Responsible and Sustainable AI / March 27, 2024 / Insights+
  • A Human Rights Assessment of the Generative AI Value Chain / February 9, 2024 / Blog

  Full Bio

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Software-as-a-service (SaaS) makes up the largest segment of the public cloud market. SaaS services address numerous business needs, and they are behind many of the consumer-facing products and platforms we use every day. As these services become increasingly common, a deeper understanding of how SaaS services may impact human rights, and the appropriate actions to address those impacts, is needed.

To unpack the SaaS sector’s connection to human rights, BSR worked with seven business-to-business (B2B) SaaS providers to conduct a human rights assessment of the SaaS sector. This report identifies salient human rights risks and makes recommendations to SaaS providers on how to avoid, prevent, and mitigate adverse human rights impacts associated with their individual services and the sector as a whole.