Paradata as a Tool for Legal Analysis: Utilising Data-on-Data Related Processes

This chapter explores aspects of the relationship between technology, transparency, and accountability in public decision-making. It addresses how technological advancements have increased accessibility and automation while complicating decision process reviewability. It explores transparency as a relational concept and focuses on legal obligations on documentation and records-keeping, such as in the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the upcoming EU Artificial Intelligence Act, as a means to bolster transparency and improve reviewability. In particular it also discusses the feasibility of gathering and analysing ‘paradata’—data pertaining to data processes—as a means to safeguard legality and transparency in automated decision-making, notably within the public sphere.