F A.I. LURE TO ACCESS
Fa.i.lure to Access is an applied research project to test data protection and access to information procedures among prominent companies and government agencies in South Africa in relation to AI and data processing.
F A.I. LURE TO ACCESS
Testing data protection and access to information procedures
Fa.i.lure to Access is an applied research project to test data protection and access to information procedures among prominent companies and government agencies in South Africa in relation to AI and data processing.
Mapping the state of AI policy and regulation in Africa
We approached 14 companies and 2 government bodies.
We asked each to confirm what personal information they had about us, whether they had shared it with any third parties, and whether they had used it for automated processing.
Browse our findings below, or download the full report.
Guiding practitioners seeking to protect human rights
KEY FINDINGS
Responded
Partially responded
Did not respond at all
Though the law provides that we should be able to exercise and protect these rights, it proved to be inexplicably difficult to confirm whether companies were using AI to process our own personal information, and if so, how.
Five of the 16 institutions (31%) failed to respond to any information request, and nearly half (45%) of those that did respond provided no substantive answer to our questions about automated processing. Those answers we did receive were generally vague and undetailed.
This preliminary research suggests a long path ahead to realise the rights of data subjects in relation to automated processing, and more generally towards more transparent and accountable use of artificial intelligence.