RDR pilot study underscores the need for rights-based standards in targeted advertising and algorithmic systems - Ranking Digital Rights

According to new findings in a pilot study released by RDR this week, not one of eight U.S. and European companies evaluated disclosed how they develop and train their algorithmic systems. This means that every piece of promoted or recommended content, and every ad we encounter, appears on our screen as the result of a process and a set of rules no one but the company can see. These processes not only pose significant risks to privacy—particularly when companies collect data and make inferences about users without their knowledge or consent—but can also result in discriminatory outcomes if algorithmic systems are based on biased data sets.