Digital welfare fraud detection and the Dutch SyRI judgment

In 2020, a Dutch court passed judgment in a case about a digital welfare fraud detection system called Systeem Risico Indicatie (SyRI). The court ruled that the SyRI legislation is unlawful because it does not comply with the right to privacy under the European Convention of Human Rights. In this article we analyse the judgment and its implications. This ruling is one of first in which a court has invalidated a welfare fraud detection system for breaching the right to privacy. We show that the immediate effects of the judgment are limited. The judgment does not say much about automated fraud d... Mehr ...

Verfasser: van Bekkum, Marvin
Borgesius, Frederik Zuiderveen
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: European Journal of Social Security ; volume 23, issue 4, page 323-340 ; ISSN 1388-2627 2399-2948
Verlag/Hrsg.: SAGE Publications
Schlagwörter: Economics / Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous) / Public Administration / Sociology and Political Science
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26670813
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13882627211031257

In 2020, a Dutch court passed judgment in a case about a digital welfare fraud detection system called Systeem Risico Indicatie (SyRI). The court ruled that the SyRI legislation is unlawful because it does not comply with the right to privacy under the European Convention of Human Rights. In this article we analyse the judgment and its implications. This ruling is one of first in which a court has invalidated a welfare fraud detection system for breaching the right to privacy. We show that the immediate effects of the judgment are limited. The judgment does not say much about automated fraud detection systems in general, because it is limited to the circumstances of the case. Still, the judgment is important. The judgment reminds policymakers that fraud detection must happen in a way that respects data protection principles and the right to privacy. The judgment also confirms the importance of transparency if personal data are used.