Telecoms group rejects comparison with firms such as Vodafone and AT&T, which have published transparency reports

BT has dismissed calls from privacy campaigners to publish a transparency report revealing its links with the intelligence agency GCHQ and other government surveillance services.

Speaking at the telecoms group's annual general meeting in London, its chairman, Sir Michael Rake, rejected the notion that BT should follow the lead of companies such as Vodafone and AT&T by releasing a report on its dealings with government agencies.

Last month Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone companies, revealed that government agencies in 29 countries were eavesdropping on its networks. The US companies AT&T and Verizon have published similar reports in the wake of revelations from the whistleblower Edward Snowden about government spying.

BT, which is the UK's largest provider of broadband internet, but has not had a consumer mobile phone business since 2001, insisted the comparison with Vodafone was wrong. "We are not going to compare ourselves to Vodafone, which is an entirely different company, operating in different countries," Rake said.

BT operates in 170 countries worldwide but offers its non-UK services, such as coordinating the computer systems of sprawling multinationals, via networks owned by established operators including Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia.

Peter Micek of the privacy group Access told shareholders that BT was "facilitating direct GCHQ's access" to private data. "BT is not alone, but you haven't taken the action that many of your peers have … you have not released a transparency report like so many telcos are continuing to do around the world, describing the laws on requests and network shutdowns worldwide."

The standoff comes as emergency legisilation giving the security services access to people's phone and internet bills is being rushed through parliament. The House of Lords is currently debating the data retention and investigatory powers bill, known as Drip, after a large majority of MPs voted in favour of the draft legislation on Tuesday. BT has shied away from making statements on the bill, but Rake described the data retention proposals as an appropriate step.

"We comply with the law in every country we operate in. In the country where we have infrastructure that is subject to more of those considerations, obviously the UK there is a very thorough system."

Privacy advocates were unsatisfied, and another campaigner accused the company of ignoring human rights by providing cables used by the US military in helping facilitate drone attacks – a complaint raised by campaign group Reprieve, but rejected by the business department.

Rake said the company had no knowledge of how its customers used its phones and internet connections.

"We are a telecoms provider and we provide telecoms equipment and cables to anyone who can pay our bills, provided they are not legally sanctioned."