AI Policy & Governance, Privacy & Data
CDT Submitted Testimony Regarding D.C. Stop Discrimination by Algorithms Act
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) submitted comments in response to the D.C. Council Committee on Government Operations & Facilities’ call for written testimony on the Stop Discrimination by Algorithms Act of 2021 (SDAA).
Our testimony discusses harms that D.C. communities face due to discrimination in algorithm-driven decision-making. Algorithmic tools inform decisions across sectors, including:
- Student activity monitoring tools that incorrectly flag safety threats and academic misconduct based on students’ language, appearance, and behavior;
- Tools that determine whether job applicants are qualified or whether workers are meeting productivity goals by analyzing data related to protected characteristics; and
- Tenant screening, credit check, and loan approval algorithms that rely on data that tends to disfavor marginalized communities.
These systems can directly impact Black, immigrant, disabled, and LGBTQ+ people in D.C, so effective legal safeguards against algorithmic harms are critical for these communities. CDT supports a number of provisions in the SDAA that create transparency requirements for algorithm-driven decision-making systems. The Council should ensure that protections are scoped to prevent algorithmic harms against D.C. communities.
