How to Lift the Veil Off Hidden Algorithms
In the absence of rules around algorithms, activists, lawyers, and tech workers are hacking transparency through other means
By DJ Pangburn
In 2012, the New Orleans police department quietly partnered with the data mining company Palantir to implement a predictive policing system to help identify likely criminals and victims. For six years, neither the city council nor the courts were told that citizens’ data was being mined to generate police “target lists” and investigate individuals. Questions about the program’s propriety, legality, or value were never addressed. Ron Serpas, the city’s police chief at the time, told reporter Ali Winston last year, when he revealed the program, “It is, to me, something that certainly requires a view, requires a look.”
In March, New Orleans officials said the contract with Palantir would not be renewed, but the relationship exposed a broader concern about how the government uses algorithms and data. New software is entering the public sector, helping to identify criminals, match students with schools, guide criminal sentencing, and help determine government benefits. But few citizens have any idea that the technologies exist, or how they’re being used. If the public is aware, trade secrets and…
