Provide Safe Channels to Raise Concerns

March, 2023 • Alex Serban, Koen van der Blom, Joost Visser

44 / 46 • Governance •

This practice was ranked as advanced.
Click to read more. •

This practice addresses requirements
from the EU guidelines for trustworthy ML.
Click to read more.

Intent

Obtain honest feedback, allowing timely remediation, rather than giving rise to conflict.

Motivation

Users can help improve the application by providing feedback.

Applicability

Safe communication channels should be applied to any machine learning application.

Description

Communication channels between users and developers can help to discuss issues, dilemmas or emergent concerns regarding ethical use of machine learning. Users may, for example, wish to raise concerns about (perceived) bias or inquire about how an machine learning system reached a decision.

In order to facilitate communication, increase transparency and obtain feedback for your application, it is recommended to provide safe channels for users to raise concerns.

These channels can be as simple as mailing lists, blogs (e.g., Disqus) or phone numbers. Make sure to include options for anonymisation in order to protect the users’ privacy and be as inclusive as possible.

Adoption