Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2014
ISSN
0043-0617
Publisher
University of Washington School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
Big Data is increasingly mined to rank and rate individuals. Predictive algorithms assess whether we are good credit risks, desirable employees, reliable tenants, valuable customers — or deadbeats, shirkers, menaces, and “wastes of time.” Crucial opportunities are on the line, including the ability to obtain loans, work, housing, and insurance. Though automated scoring is pervasive and consequential, it is also opaque and lacking oversight. In one area where regulation does prevail — credit — the law focuses on credit history, not the derivation of scores from data.
Procedural regularity is essential for those stigmatized by “artificially intelligent” scoring systems. The American due process tradition should inform basic safeguards. Regulators should be able to test scoring systems to ensure their fairness and accuracy. Individuals should be granted meaningful opportunities to challenge adverse decisions based on scores miscategorizing them. Without such protections in place, systems could launder biased and arbitrary data into powerfully stigmatizing scores.
Recommended Citation
Danielle K. Citron,
The Scored Society: Due Process for Automated Predictions
,
in
89
Washington Law Review
1
(2014).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/618
