Human Review (Automated Decisions)

The involvement of human judgment in reviewing, overseeing, or making final determinations about decisions that are partly or fully automated. Human review serves as a safeguard against automated decision-making errors, biases, and inappropriate outcomes. GDPR Article 22 provides rights regarding solely automated decisions with significant effects, including the right to human intervention. Effective human review means the human has authority to change automated decisions, possesses competence and training to understand automated outputs, receives sufficient information about how automation works and its limitations, isn't routinely rubber-stamping automated decisions, and has adequate time to conduct meaningful review. Token human review that doesn't genuinely assess automated outputs doesn't satisfy legal requirements. Organizations using automated decision-making should implement meaningful human review procedures, document review processes and outcomes, train reviewers appropriately, maintain records showing genuine human involvement, and continuously assess whether human review is effective or merely procedural.