All of the neutrality controls were assessed as sufficient, confirming that the Routescanner routing system is neutral:
- Data quality is managed in a neutral manner;
- All logic rules that could possibly affect neutrality have been assessed as neutral: 20 logic rules were analysed and assessed to be neutral through reasoning, and other 3 additional logic rules required testing using a method called 'empirical neutrality validation' and were found to be neutral.
- Routescanner offers transparency with detail, allowing any stakeholder to validate neutrality and correctness Governance is in place: Neutrality is regularly assessed.
In conclusion, Routescanner selects the best routing options only because they score the best on the optimization goal and not because certain operators or ports are involved.
- Neutral data quality management
- Identical centralized quality and actuality controls across sources and entry;
- All data errors each treated conscientiously and fed back to origin.
- Neutral logic, using neutral supplemental data in data pre-processing and the algorithm
- Algorithm searches routes purely based on an objective optimization goal;
- All logic has been assessed as neutral;
- The logic consists of rules that reduce the search space to set requirements and/or to reduce search time;
- Logic does not contain explicit mention of specific operators or locations;
- 20 logic rules including supplemental data have been assessed by SIG’s reasoning as being neutral;
- 3 additional logic rules could not be assessed by reasoning only, and have been tested successfully using empirical neutrality validation.
- Transparency
- Anyone can check details of any route to validate neutrality and data correctness;
- Alternative routes/operators are shown to allow still being selected or checked;
- Multiple clear communication channels for client feedback;
- Logic does not contain explicit mention of specific operators or locations;
- Logic is intellectual property and therefore not published, but assessed by SIG.
- Neutrality regularly tested with neutral test data
- Logic including supplemental data is regularly assessed for neutrality;
- Test data is unbiased as it contains real user queries and neutral variations.
