AlgorithmWatch is a non-profit research and advocacy organization that is committed to watch, unpack and analyze automated decision-making (ADM) systems and their impact on society.

Publication

29 March 2021

#COVID19 #VACCINE

Analysis: Digital vaccine certificates – global patchwork, little transparency

A global debate has sparked around the idea of implementing a digital infrastructure to prove a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status across borders. But as the initiatives multiply across Europe and all over the globe, an international consensus is hard to reach — and issues still abound.

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Story

3 March 2021

#INSTAGRAM

Politicians can do well on Instagram. Political posts, less so.

An experiment by AlgorithmWatch, Groene Amsterdammer, Pointer and NOS in the Netherlands shows that Instagram probably prioritizes images of faces and pushes down images that contain text.

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Roel Wijnants |flickr

Story

25 February 2021

#UNDING

In Berlin, Google Maps and TomTom encourage car drivers to disregard the law

Routing services from TomTom and Google Maps encourage car drivers to use cycle streets, which is illegal. Both companies said they would update their databases, but this is unlikely to completely solve the problem.

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Piero Nigro | Unsplash

Story

28 January 2021

#EUROPE #FACERECOGNITION #GREECE #POLICE

Flush with EU funds, Greek police to introduce live face recognition before the summer

Greek police are due to receive gear that allows for real-time face recognition during police patrols. Despite concerns that the system could seriously affect civil liberties, details about the project are scarce.

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Εφημερίδα ΠΡΙΝ | Flickr

Blog

11 March 2021

#TEAM

The AlgorihmWatch team continues to grow: new faces 2021

In the last 12 months, the number of AlgorithmWatch team members has more than doubled. We are happy to introduce the new colleagues who joined us at the beginning of 2021. Welcome, Mira, Kerstin, Gregor, Leonie and Jens!

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Julia Bornkessel | CC BY 4.0

Publications

Read our comprehensive reports, analyses and working papers on the impact and ethical questions of algorithmic decision-making, written in collaboration with our network of researchers and civil society experts. See our publications

28 January 2021

Read now: Swiss Edition of the Automating Society Report 2020

How are AI-based systems being used by private companies and public authorities in Switzerland? The Automating Society Report 2020 by AlgorithmWatch and Bertelsmann Stiftung sheds light on what role automated decision-making (ADM) systems play in our lives. As a result of the most comprehensive research on the issue conducted in Europe so far, the report covers the current use of and policy debates around ADM systems in 16 European countries and at EU level.

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Journalistic stories

How does automated decision-making effect our daily lives? Where are the systems applied and what happens when something goes wrong? Read our journalistic investigations on the current use of ADM systems and their consequences. Read our stories

15 April 2021

How French welfare services are creating ‘robo-debt’

When automated fraud detection algorithms fail, welfare services can wrongly demand the repayment of benefits. Over the last five years, several scandals showed the breadth of the problem. In Australia, 400,000 people were put in ‘robo-debt’, 40,000 in Michigan and 26,000 in the Netherlands. Journalist Lucie Inland explains how the French welfare office automatically put her in debt, and how she fought back.

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Positions

Read our responses and expert analyses on current political and regulatory developments concerning automated decision-making. Read our positions

16 December 2020

The DSA proposal is a good start. Now policymakers must ensure that it has teeth.

AlgorithmWatch reacts to the release of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).

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Blog

Upcoming events, campaigns and updates from our team – here is where you get your news about AlgorithmWatch. Visit our blog

10 March 2021

Job opening: We’re looking for a Senior Policy & Advocacy Advisor

AlgorithmWatch is looking for a dedicated and experienced Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor to join our team in Berlin. Fluency in English is required, in German desired.

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Projects

Our research projects take a specific look at automated decision-making in certain sectors, ranging from sustainablity, the COVID-19 pandemic, human resources to social media platfroms and public discourse. You can also get involved! Engage and contribute, for example with a data donation! Learn more about our projects

9 March 2021

AutoCheck – Mapping risks of discrimination in automated decision-making systems

Automated decision-making (ADM) processes are becoming a fact of life in more and more areas: They assess our creditworthiness, set individualized prices on online retail platforms or suggest which movies to watch. However, their use […]

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