A/HRC/50/56 Toolkit on Human Rights,69 which provides investors with practical guidance and tools for applying the Guiding Principles to their investment practices.70 C. Addressing risks to people connected to business models 72. More and more, technology company business models are being criticized for creating or exacerbating negative impacts on a range of human rights by accumulating extensive behavioural data to make increasingly accurate and highly lucrative predictions about the interests and behaviours of individuals and groups in society.71 73. The Guiding Principles can offer insights about how to address situations in which the most serious risks to people are inherent in the business models of technology companies. Indeed, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights applies from the moment that the business enterprise is established and as it expands and grows, which should translate into consideration of whether the company’s business model and strategy create risks to human rights. 74. As a starting point, technology companies should proactively identify when their business model-driven practices, and related technology designs, create or exacerbate human rights risks and engage peers and stakeholder in discussions about this. Companies may then need to take action to address such situations – whether by mitigating risks within existing business models or by innovating entirely new ones. This is not to suggest that a given business model will be fully negative. That is rarely the case. The key point is that, consistent with the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, technology companies should “know and show” how they address adverse risks or impacts to people connected to their business models (general principle 15, commentary). 75. If a company cannot take effective steps to prevent or mitigate negative human rights impacts within the framework of its existing business models, this should lead to inquiries about whether that model needs to be adapted or even transformed by the company acting alone, on an industry-wide basis or in response to regulatory action. This will require engagement by boards of directors, executives, entrepreneurs and founders that have an influence on company strategy. Engagement with external stakeholders, especially affected ones, is a critical aspect of operating with respect for human rights, including when addressing business-model-related human rights risks. 76. Institutional investors, as part of their responsibility to respect human rights, have a key role to play in this regard, having to integrate human rights considerations in all stages of investing, including in how they inform and influence their investees’ business model choices. Alongside action by investors, the policy frameworks, laws and regulations that Governments put in place as part of the smart mix of measures they deploy to shape the sector’s business practices are of critical importance in addressing business-model-related human rights harms. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 77. In the face of ever more complex technologies being developed and deployed, along with the associated risks and challenges, the Guiding Principles are increasingly being recognized as a powerful tool for public, private and civil society actors to ensure that innovation is done responsibly and with respect for human rights. As noted in goal 1.3 of the road map for the next decade of business and human rights (Guiding Principles 10+ road map), the Guiding Principles provide “a compelling starting point 69 70 71 14 See https://investorsforhumanrights.org/investor-toolkit-human-rights. See also https://rankingdigitalrights.org/investors/; https://shiftproject.org/resource/lgindicators/about-lgis/; https://investorsforhumanrights.org/ict-salient-issue-briefings-investors; https://www.accessnow.org/transparency-reporting-index/; and https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/company-assessments/. See further https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Business/BTech/B_Tech_Foundational_Paper.pdf.