Calculated participation

Algorithms influence our lives not only on Facebook, but in many other areas of life as well. Algorithmic decision-making (ADM) processes are used, for example, to observe and evaluate how often break-ins occur in certain neighborhoods so the police can deploy their resources accordingly.

The potential social impact of ADM processes – more concretely, their impact on opportunities to participate – is a key characteristic for carrying out a differentiated analysis of those processes. Ben Wagner and Kilian Vieth, authors of the working paper, are presenting a tool, which makes it possible to analyze the potential impact of ADM processes that evaluate and judge people. The analysis is based on seven independent variables.

In contrast to intuitive estimates, the tool's questions can be applied to a range of situations. The point of the analysis is not to determine how effective a given process is, but how it might impact participation – positively or negatively. The greater the impact, the more requirements must be put in place and the more effort must be made to ensure positive effects are exploited and negative effects, such as discrimination, are avoided.