About us

The Digital Due Process Clinic provides high-quality, pro bono services to people struggling with automated scoring systems. Based at Cornell University, the program brings together multidisciplinary teams of students who work on real-world problems under the supervision of experienced faculty.

Why Digital Due Process?

• their credit line is limited because they used their card to pay for marriage counseling (FTC v CompuCredit Corp Complaint, p. 34-35);
• a Google search reveals a range of compromising photos published by a vengeful ex (“The Disturbing Story Behind NYC’s Revenge Porn Perpetrators,” NYPost, Feb 25, 2019);
• an essay-scoring engine penalizes the use of African-American vernacular (“Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ Essays,” Motherboard, Aug 20, 2019);
• a workplace analytics system flags their mental health (“Your work emails contain subtle clues about your emotional state,” Quartz, Sep. 24, 2019)?

In all these cases, the affected parties struggle to obtain what legal scholars call “due process,” i.e. the right not to be judged arbitrarily and to appeal an automated judgment. When systems are complex, proprietary, and opaque and legal recourse is impractical or limited, a special kind of expertise is needed to represent one’s interests.

The Digital Due Process Clinic aims to fill this gap by gathering a multidisciplinary group of students under the supervision of experienced faculty and engaging them in research, advocacy, and outreach, using the tools of humanists, technologists, and social scientists.

The 2022 Cohort

Project: Humans of AI

The 2021 Cohort

Project: Everyday Ecologies of Scoring: An Exploratory Map

The (Inaugural) 2020 Cohort

Project: Documenting the Lived Experiences of Data Subjects

The Team

Interested in joining us? Applications for the next spring cohort will open in October 2022. If you are thinking about a summer project or an independent study, please send a one-page outline to dueprocess@cornell.edu.

Alumni

Chris Hesselbein, Clinical Research Fellow, 2021-2023 (now: Politecnico di Milano)
Carson Crane, Undergraduate RA, 2021–2022 (now: University of Minnesota School of Public Health)
Yue Zhao, Graduate Summer Fellow, 2021
Ngai Keung Chan, Graduate Summer Fellow, 2020 (now: Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Ranjit Singh, Clinical Research Fellow, 2019–2020 (now: Data & Society Research Institute)
Kyla Chasalow, Undergraduate RA, 2019–2020 (now: Oxford M.Sc. Statistics)
August Chang, Student Researcher, 2020 (now: Chicago M.A. Anthropology)
Divyansha Sehgal, Student Researcher, 2019 (now: Deutsche Bank)

Learning objectives

The Digital Due Process Clinic is a setting in which students:

• assume primary responsibility for deliverables and client matters
• provide excellent support and representation to those affected by automated scoring systems
• develop key digital advocacy skills, including interviewing, counseling, fact investigation, drafting, negotiation, and, in some cases, technological support
• engage in reflective practice, showing the ability to evaluate past performances and continually improve future performances through planning
• collaborate with other clinic students, clinic supervisors, and community partners

Funding

The Digital Due Process Clinic is generously supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award and the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University.