Of Understanding, Consent and Refusal

No one shall be ruled by a system they cannot question or appeal.

1. Every person has the right to know when a machine has decided, or helped to decide, something about them.
2. Every person has the right to an explanation in plain words: what was decided, on what grounds, and how to challenge it.
3. No system shall watch a person, or keep what it learns about them, beyond what is needed for a purpose they were told of and agreed to. To withdraw that agreement stops what comes next, and what was kept shall be deleted wherever the duty to account allows.
4. Where consent cannot be given (for one who cannot speak for themselves, or to keep someone from harm), the exception shall be narrow, recorded and open to review.
5. Every person has the right to refuse a machine and to choose a human instead, wherever that choice can be given. Those who say it cannot be given shall show why.
6. Where a person cannot refuse a system, a human door shall stay open: a person who can listen, reconsider and overrule.
7. These rights shall be usable by all: in plain words and in one’s own language, by people with disabilities, by the poor, and by those far from help.

By these signs it is kept

• You are told when a machine is involved.
• Where you can say no, you are still served. Where you cannot, you can reach a person who can overrule.
• Every system has a human door, and the door opens.