On May 25, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
will come into effect requiring companies that process personally
identifiable information of EU residents to comply with a
significant number of enhanced data-protection requirements. One of
these requirements is an individual's "right to
explanation" of an algorithmic decision made about him or her
by a machine.
This right will affect companies that monitor the behavior of
European residents for the purposes of data-subject
"profiling" that produces legal effects or significantly
affects the natural persons whose personal information is being
collected and analyzed. This includes "profiling" that
consists of any form of automated processing of personal data
evaluating the personal aspects relating to a natural person, in
particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning the data
subject's performance at work, economic situation, health,
personal preferences or interests, reliability or
