According to the complaint, the algorithm promotes discrimination. It would classify groups of people as a risk group based on automatic profiling. Travelers, construction workers and single people who lived in a ‘lesser neighbourhood’, among others, could be disadvantaged by the system.
The fraud scorecard was used by 158 municipalities from 2004, until a court ruling in 2020. Last June, a collective of journalists from Lighthouse Reports, Argos and NRC revealed that some municipalities continued to use the fraud scorecard.
Surcharge affair
FNV then opened a hotline where benefit recipients could check for themselves whether they were labeled as a possible fraudster when applying for benefits. The reporting center received 165 reports.
FNV vice-chairman Kitty Jong expects that the Dutch Data Protection Authority will impose a fine on the five municipalities. “Despite all the warnings, these municipalities continued to use risk indicators that were also used in the surcharge affair,” she says. “In any case, I expect more and stricter supervision now that the AP, in addition to processing the data, will be more concerned with monitoring the use of algorithms.”
