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Analysis and Technology

Computer says no? Europeans can now challenge that decision

By Aviva Rutkin

13 July 2016

British policemen questioning black youths

Who, or what, sent them?

Jane Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy Stockphoto

HAVE you been turned down by a computer? Perhaps your online credit application was refused. Maybe you were denied a job, or even parole.

Soon, you may have the right to ask the inscrutable algorithms involved to explain themselves.

In April this year, the European parliament approved the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new set of rules governing personal data. Due to go into effect in 2018, it introduces a “right to explanation”: the opportunity for European Union citizens to question the logic of…

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