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Algorithms and Transparency in View of the New General Data Protection Regulation

Merle Temme

DOI https://doi.org/10.21552/edpl/2017/4/9



European Union data protection law requires the application of transparency to operators who use algorithmic decision-making in order to protect an individual’s private data. This article examines the principle of transparency and its requirements on algorithmic decision-making (ADM) in light of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Specific attention is paid to the so-called ‘right to explanation’ that is claimed by some scholars to be the most important expression of transparency in the GDPR. This article finds that although algorithms are highly complex, they could be rendered (more) transparent when efforts are made to better address transparency requirements. However, the GDPR does not sufficiently address special features of automatic decision-making that render ADM different from human decision-making. Importantly, the existence of a legally binding ‘right to explanation’ in the GDPR is doubtful and even if it came into being, restrictions and carve-outs severely limit its impact.

Merle Temme, LLM, trainee at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg. For correspondence: <mailto:merleotemme@gmail.com>.

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