Meaningful Information and the Right to Explanation
International Data Privacy Law, vol. 7(4), 233-242 (2017)
20 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2017 Last revised: 20 Dec 2017
Date Written: November 27, 2017
Abstract
There is no single, neat statutory provision labeled the “right to explanation” in Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But nor is such a right illusory.
Responding to two prominent papers that, in turn, conjure and critique the right to explanation in the context of automated decision-making, we advocate a return to the text of the GDPR.
Articles 13-15 provide rights to “meaningful information about the logic involved” in automated decisions. This is a right to explanation, whether one uses the phrase or not.
The right to explanation should be interpreted functionally, flexibly, and should, at a minimum, enable a data subject to exercise his or her rights under the GDPR and human rights law.
Keywords: GDPR, explanations, right to explanation, algorithms, machine learning, law and technology, law, EU law
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