Have You Been Impacted by a Government Algorithm? Find Out and Share Your Story.

We're investigating how the state government uses "automated decision systems" to make important decisions affecting people's rights or access to public benefits, or when the government uses automation in other important decision-making areas. You may have heard a government employee say "we use an algorithm to decide your eligibility for benefits," "we use a formula to decide how much funding you will receive," or "our automated system flagged you for investigation." Those kinds of statements suggest that an automated decision system affected your life in some way. We want to hear from you and learn about ways that automated decision systems have impacted your life.

This is not an offer of legal assistance. This form is not intended as a means of obtaining legal advice or assistance, and will not establish an attorney-client relationship. Its purpose is to collect stories that will be shared publicly, including on social media. We will contact you only if we need to follow up with you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dillon Reisman at dreisman@aclu-nj.org.

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Here are a few fictional stories of automated decision systems. Even if your story only loosely resembles these examples, we still want to hear from you. If you're not sure how to answer or don't want to answer every question, you can simply respond with "Not applicable."

Automated Decision Systems that determine my access to public benefits. Click to expand.

Healthcare: Philip lives with cerebral palsy and lives independently in his own apartment, with the support of a personal care assistant who visits every day to help with cooking, cleaning, and other activities. Today, Philip received a letter saying that because of a new state Medicaid budgeting assessment tool, his budget for personal care assistance will be cut in half. The state cannot explain why the assessment tool made that decision, but the decision will seriously hurt his ability to live safely.

Public Assistance: Natasha, a survivor of domestic violence, applied for emergency housing assistance. During the application process, a "risk assessor" asked questions like "does your abuser know where you live?" and "has your abuser made unwanted phone calls in the past six months?" The risk assessor tallies up Natasha's answers on a risk assessment form that evaluates Natasha's risk of being a victim of future domestic violence as either "low," "medium," or "high." Natasha's risk assessment comes back "low": "I'm sorry, but because the assessment says you are at a low risk of domestic violence, I can't recommend emergency housing assistance for you."

Have you ever been told that the amount of services or support you’ve been receiving from the government will be reduced or denied because of a decision made by an assessment tool? *

Yes

Not sure

This could apply to healthcare, public assistance, housing assistance, education, or other areas

Please explain:

Have you ever been told that the amount of services or support you’ve been receiving from the government will be reduced, but no explanation was provided to you? *

Yes

Not sure

Please explain:

Has your application to receive public benefits ever been denied after answering questions about your life at home, your relationship with a partner or spouse, or history of intimate partner violence? *

Yes

Not sure

Please explain:

Automated decision systems that affect how I'm policed and surveilled. Click to expand.

Criminal Legal System: Mo was arrested and jailed for aggravated assault. Mo's lawyer told Mo that the judge would likely release him ahead of trial, since Mo had no prior arrests or criminal record. Mo was shocked when, at a hearing, the judge announced that he had decided to keep Mo in jail: "The pretrial risk assessment has recommended that you be detained because it predicted that you are at a high risk of skipping your future court appearances and of being a danger to others – I'm not going to release you."

Facial Recognition: While Samantha was eating dinner with her family at home, she heard a knock at the door. Standing in front of her were two police officers, who arrested her for committing a robbery. But Samantha was completely innocent of the crime – she lived well over 30 miles away from the scene of the crime and was at home on the day in question. But Samantha could not immediately prove this to the police and she had to stay in jail overnight. The next day, she was released without explanation. But on her way out, she overheard a prosecutor talking to an officer. Apparently, a facial recognition system had mistaken her for someone else.

Public Benefits: When Jon was laid off from his job three years ago, he relied on unemployment insurance for several months while he looked for a new position. Today he received a disturbing letter from the state. The letter accused Jon of fraudulent unemployment claims. The next week he received another letter demanding $5000 repaid to the state. The state, it turned out, had used an automated fraud detection tool to "flag" Jon, and then an automated system had proceeded to demand repayment.

Have you ever been accused of a crime or wrongdoing or been the subject of a criminal or state investigation, only to later learn it was because of an automated process that mistakenly selected you? *

Yes

Not sure

Please explain:

Automated Decision Systems that impact my access to opportunity and employment. Click to expand.

Employment/Education: Tanya is a third-grade teacher who regularly receives rave reviews from students and their parents. In an evaluation three months ago by the assistant principal, Tanya was praised for how engaging and thoughtful she was as a teacher. Tanya was surprised to learn that despite all this, she was going to be fired: a "value-added" system (a kind of statistical tool/model) measured that Tanya had not had a large enough direct effect on her students' test results.

Have you ever been evaluated by a state assessment or a tool that impacted your employment or access to professional opportunities? *

Yes

Not sure

Please explain:

If you’ve ever been denied public benefits, assistance, or have felt unnecessarily scrutinized as a result of a formula, an assessment, or an automatic process that treated you unfairly or gave you no opportunity to respond we still want to hear your story even if you can’t relate to these specific examples. If you have a story you’d like to share, please explain.

Please explain:

Permissions:

Any information you choose to share with us will remain confidential and be reviewed by ACLU-NJ legal staff. We will not share any of your information without your consent.

Do you give permission to the ACLU-NJ or ACLU to contact you for further questions or resources, if needed? *

Yes

Please note: This form is not intended as a means of obtaining legal advice or assistance, and will not establish an attorney-client relationship. Its purpose is to collect stories that will be shared publicly, including on social media.

If I've entered a mobile phone number, I allow the ACLU and its representatives to contact me via text messages and mobile phone calls about ways to take action and support the ACLU.

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