Agencies will be free to decide themselves whether decisions are important enough to be covered by the Government’s “algorithm” charter. But a government stocktake in 2018 found computer algorithms were being used by agencies to help make a wide range of potentially life-changing decisions about the treatment of Kiwis. New Zealand’s charter doesn’t appear to give that explicit right, requiring only that agencies “provide a channel for challenging or appealing decisions informed by algorithms”. But more laudable is its focus on making sure people can find out what is going on when important decisions are made by computer. Agencies will need to clearly explain how decisions are informed by algorithms, and make the information about the “data and processes” available.

Source: Stuff July 28, 2020 03:10 UTC