Legal · AI and your rights
When a machine decides about you
Algorithms now screen job applications, rank candidates, score credit, assess workers, and flag claims. UK law gives you rights when an automated system makes a decision that affects you. This is where those rights live, in plain terms, with the law that backs them.
This theme runs across employment, consumer, and data protection law at once, which is why it sits on its own. I write it from both sides: a decade in data protection and compliance, and hands-on work building AI systems. The law on automated decisions reads differently once you know what the systems actually do.
Articles
Published
- AI Rejected Your Job Application: Your Rights under UK Law in 2026
The Articles 22A to 22D safeguards regime in force since 5 February 2026, the four things you can demand after an automated rejection, indirect discrimination under the Equality Act when the tool is biased, and the EU AI Act dates that moved in May 2026.
Planned
- Algorithmic management: your rights when software directs and assesses your work
- Workplace surveillance under UK GDPR Article 88
- Automated decisions after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: the new safeguards in practice
- Facial recognition and biometric checks at work
- When AI scores you: credit, insurance, and tenancy decisions about individuals
The other side of the same coin
Your rights as an individual are the deployer’s obligations in reverse. If you advise or run the organisation using these systems, this is what the law asks of you.
- Do I Need a DPIA for My AI System?
The Article 35 threshold an organisation has to clear before it screens people at scale.
- DPIA for AI Agents
The added DPIA duties once a system acts on the world rather than only answering.
- EU AI Act Compliance for SMEs
Recruitment and selection systems are high-risk under Annex III.
- AI Risk Assessment
How a deployer is expected to evaluate the system before it goes live.
When these systems fail, the consequences become public. The AI Agent Incident Register analyses real agent failures for who carries the legal liability, including a company bound by its chatbot’s invented policy.
Not legal advice
Educational. Not a substitute for advice from a qualified solicitor on your specific facts. For your matter, instruct a regulated practitioner.