Studies of racist algorithms don’t break anti-hacking law, court rules

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A federal court has ruled that research into racist algorithms doesn’t breach the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a controversial anti-hacking law. The US government had argued the law makes violating a website’s terms and conditions a criminal offense, which severely restricted investigations into discriminatory algorithms. Advertisers have used these algorithms to stop people from seeing job, housing, or credit ads based on their race, gender, and age. Researchers can investigate the companies behind them by creating fake user accounts, and then recording the adverts they receive. But if this violates the website’s terms-of-service, they could face federal prosecution.…

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