If effectively drafted, California residents will be able to stop algorithms that profile them and impact their financial situation, access to education or employment. For example, a job application algorithm used by an employer to automatically assess and rank job applicants according to names, addresses, gender and disabilities is profiling, and Californians should be able to opt out of that automated decision-making.
Or, say a financial lending company uses a certain age bracket as a reason for not having a credit application further analyzed. Since the age of a person doesn’t matter when applying for credit and denial significantly affected applicants, such criteria should be stopped under automated decision-making regulations.
Under the new law, Californians will also be able to pull back the curtain on algorithms and learn about their logic. They have the right to know the personal data processed, the automated decision’s consequences for the subject, and any assigned categories, labels or rankings.
But the law is under attack by large corporations seeking to delay and spread misinformation. The California Chamber of Commerce, which counts Amazon, Google and Meta as members,