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NL · Missing: publication date

SyRI: the Dutch fraud risk system struck down in court

Image: Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten, banner from the bijvoorbaatverdacht.nl campaign site. All rights reserved by the owner.

Reported by
Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten, PILP-NJCM, FNV
Methods
  • Legal challenge
  • Court findings

SyRI let Dutch government bodies combine personal data to predict who might commit benefits or tax fraud, and it was used mainly in poorer neighbourhoods. Almost everything about how it worked was secret. A coalition of civil-society groups and two writers, later joined by the FNV union, took the state to court. In February 2020 a court in The Hague ruled that the law behind it breached the right to private life, because its use could not be understood or checked. The government did not appeal.

bijvoorbaatverdacht.nlSyRI: the Dutch fraud risk system struck down in courtA legal instrument (System Risk Indication) that let government bodies analyse personal data on residents with a risk model to flag people for investigation into benefits, allowance and tax fraud. The risk model and its indicators were never made public.Netherlands · Brought by Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten, PILP-NJCM, FNV and others (opens in a new tab)

How they investigated

  1. Legal challenge

    In 2018 a coalition started proceedings against the state: the Platform for Civil Rights, the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM), Privacy First, KDVP, the National Clients' Council and the writers Tommy Wieringa and Maxim Februari, later joined by the FNV union. NJCM's litigation project set up the case. They argued SyRI breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the GDPR.

  2. Court findings

    The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, submitted an amicus brief in September 2019. The court found that the law was in no way transparent about the risk model or its indicators, so how SyRI was used could not be adequately understood or checked. On 23 April 2020 the government said it would not appeal.