Of Accountability

Behind every decision that harms or helps a person, a person and the institution behind them must answer.

1. To answer is to do three things: to explain, to correct and to repair.
2. No one may answer, “The machine decided.” The machine is a tool, and those who make it and use it answer for it.
3. Every system that decides about people shall name one who operates it: one who receives complaints and sees that they are answered. The others who build, sell, deploy and profit from it share in the answer according to their control over it, their part in it, and what they could foresee. No one who is harmed shall have to untangle that chain to be heard.
4. Where harm is done, those harmed shall be protected and helped at once. The cause shall be found within a set time, a remedy shall be made, and the harm shall be kept from happening again. Some harms cannot be undone. They shall still be acknowledged and answered.
5. Every person harmed shall have a way to bring their case before someone with the power to order a remedy, within a set time, and to appeal beyond them. The voices of those affected are heard alongside that review, never instead of it.

By these signs it is kept

• Every system that decides about people names who answers for it, and how to reach them.
• Mistakes are corrected, and the correction can be seen.
• Those harmed are helped quickly and given a remedy, not only an apology.