The New York City Council has taken a proactive step by enacting a bill establishing a task force to explore fairness, accountability, and transparency in automated decision-making systems operated by the city. This is a big deal. The use of these technologies by city governments have real impacts on citizens. Today, in New York City, algorithms have been used to assign children to public schools, evaluate teachers, target buildings for fire inspections, and make policing decisions. However, public insight into how these systems work and how these decisions are being reached is inadequate.
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Today, CDT joined 55 civil society groups, as well as leading computer and data science experts, to oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) automated extreme vetting initiative. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to use automated technology and social media data to decide who gets deported or denied entry to the United States. This initiative is not only discriminatory but also technically infeasible.
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CDT contributed actively to the TSM Regulation process from the publication of the Commission’s proposal in September 2013 until its adoption in late 2015. We welcomed the final text, and noted that while it could have been more precise on what services ISPs may run in addition to Internet Access Services, what traffic management practices are allowed, and how commercial practices such as zero-rating should be treated, the same can be said of the US Open Internet regulation. Regulators will need to deal with these complicated questions in an evolving technology and market environment.
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