Netherlands Court Bans SyRI Welfare Surveillance AI as Human Rights Violation
Incident Details
Summary
The Dutch government's System Risk Indication (SyRI) used AI to profile welfare recipients and predict fraud by correlating dozens of data points including housing data, employment history, utility records, and debt. Used in lower-income neighborhoods from 2014-2019, SyRI disproportionately targeted immigrant and low-income communities. In February 2020, the Hague District Court ruled SyRI violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights due to lack of transparency and disproportionate mass surveillance. The ruling was the first court decision in Europe finding an AI government system violated human rights. It set a precedent for algorithmic accountability in public-sector AI deployment across the EU.
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