Digital Library

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Agrees with EPIC and EFF: Government Cannot Hide Lethal Injection Company’s Name from Public Based on FOIA Exemption 4

• Access to Information

• Democracy & Free Speech

• Freedom of Information Act

• Open Government

• Updates

Public Benefits, Private Vendors: How Private Companies Help Run our Welfare Programs

If you’ve been following EPIC’s work on the algorithms used in public benefits programs, you may have caught something unusual: although we talk about public welfare programs, most of the systems we’ve uncovered are developed by private companies. That isn’t a coincidence. While a few state agencies have developed their own technical systems for public benefits programs, a large and growing number of states have chosen to outsource the technological systems undergirding public benefits programs to private vendors who promise accuracy, efficiency, and cost-savings. In reality, EPIC’s research suggests the opposite: many vendor systems are costly, prone to bias and error, and developed without considering agencies’ unique needs.

• Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

• Freedom of Information Act

• Government AI Use

• Open Government

• Screening & Scoring

• Analysis

ITEM 10: How a Small Legal Aid Team Took on Algorithmic Black Boxing at Their State’s Employment Agency (And Won)

In June 2022, Legal Aid of Arkansas won a significant victory in their ongoing work to compel Arkansas’ employment agency to disclose crucial details about how it uses automated decision-making systems to detect and adjudicate fraud. In August, I spoke with Legal Aid of Arkansas Senior Associate Attorney Trevor Hawkins and Director of Advocacy Kevin De Liban about what the decision means for unemployed workers and algorithmic transparency.

• Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

• Open Government

• Screening & Scoring

• Analysis

Sen. Wyden Reveals State Department Gives Law Enforcement Unfettered Access to Sensitive Data from 145 Million Americans 

• Government Databases

• Open Government

• Surveillance Oversight

• Updates

GAO Report: Federal Agencies Lack Senior Leadership to Effectively Implement Privacy Programs

• Open Government

• Privacy Impact Assessments

• Updates

Agencies Begin to Comply with 2020 Executive Order on AI Transparency

In 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13960, which created concrete requirements aimed to improve transparency around how the United States is currently using automated decision-making systems by creating registries of non-classified federal government uses of AI, and requiring public "use case inventories." This EO prompted specific deadlines for meeting requirements, including mandates that agencies must prepare inventories of AI use cases in compliance with their own guidance by August 2021, and make those inventories public by December 2021 (the OMB additionally clarified that agencies should finalize and publish plans to regulate AI by May 17, 2021). Most deadlines stemming from the executive orders have still not been met by a majority of agencies, which EPIC wrote about in January 2022.

• AI Policy

• Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

• Government AI Use

• Open Government

• Surveillance Oversight

• Analysis

The Shakedown State: Fraud Detection and Predicting the Past

In December 2016, an Australian whistleblower warned The Guardian that a new automated system being rolled out to assess and recover debts from hundreds of thousands of the country’s most vulnerable families was fatally flawed. The whistleblower worked for Centrelink, the government agency tasked with distributing a wide range of government payouts, including social insurance benefits such as old-age pensions, parenting allowances, and job seeker (unemployment) support. In 2015, the agency introduced what they called an “online compliance intervention” to enhance fraud prevention and debt recovery in the department of human services.

• AI in the Criminal Justice System

• AI Policy

• Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

• Commercial AI Use

• Data Protection

• Government AI Use

• Open Government

• Screening & Scoring

• Analysis

EPIC Urges Administrative Conference to Recommend Sweeping Open Government Reforms

• Federal Advisory Committee Act

• Freedom of Information Act

• Open Government

• Privacy Impact Assessments

• Updates

EPIC Comments to ACUS on Disclosure of Agency Legal Records

• Federal Advisory Committee Act

• Freedom of Information Act

• Open Government

• Privacy Impact Assessments

• APA Comments

In EPIC Settlement, DOJ Breaks Down Number of Location Data Requests in Five Districts from 2016-2019

• Data Protection

• Freedom of Information Act

• Location Tracking

• Open Government

• Updates