3/1/19 — Data & Society today announces that it has signed onto a letter along with a coalition of peer organizations and individuals urging the New York City Automated Decision Systems Task Force to use a more “robust and inclusive” process for public engagement to inform the forthcoming Task Force report and recommendations on the use of automated decision systems in government. To date, the Task Force has offered the public only a web form and email address.

“Additional avenues are necessary to empower the public to help determine how automated decision systems appeals processes are structured, how the impact and harms of such systems might be measured, and which systems should, and should not, be classified within the automated decision systems definition,” says the letter.

We encourage the Task Force to explore different avenues for public engagement, using learnings from similar task forces in other states and drawing on the expertise of our fellow letter signatories including:

Albert Fox Cahn, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project; Angel Diaz Brennan, Center for Justice at NYU School of Law; Daniel Schwarz, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU); Data for Black Lives; Data & Society Research Institute; Jason Schultz, Clinical Professor NYU Law Technology Law and Policy Clinic; Katya Abazajian, Sunlight Foundation; Marc Canellas, IEEE-USA AI Policy Committee; Noel Hidalgo, BetaNYC; Nora McCarthy, Rise; Rashida Richardson, AI Now Institute; Yana Kalmyka, Arnelle Johnson, Coco Rhum, Sarah “Zaps” Zapiler; IntegrateNYC.

Read the full letter here.