On Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. in the District Court of The Hague, the hearing against the Dutch State in the proceedings on the merits regarding the System Risk Indication (SyRI) will take place. SyRI profiles citizens to find out about possible risks of fraud and vets entire neighborhoods using secret algorithms. According to the plaintiffs, a broad coalition of civil society organizations (Civil Rights Protection Platform Foundation, the Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, trade union FNV, Privacy First Foundation, KDVP Foundation and the National Council of Clients) and authors Maxim Februari and Tommy Wieringa, the system is a threat to the rule of law and should be removed from the law.
SyRI is a risk profiling system that links and analyzes large amounts of citizens’ personal data. This leads to risk reports: profiles of citizens and “wonder addresses” at increased risk of fraud. They are placed on a registry and can then be subject to criminal and administrative investigations and sanctions. Every resident of the Netherlands is “a priori suspicious” to the government because of SyRI.
With this lawsuit, plaintiffs want to stop SyRI. The system cannot be made right by building in additional safeguards or using better algorithms. The way the government is using SyRI to use large amounts of data against its citizens is unprecedented, undemocratic and has serious human rights concerns. SyRI also damages citizens’ trust in the government and the method has an inhibiting effect on citizens’ willingness to communicate openly with the government. As such, SyRI poses a fundamental threat to the functioning of the rule of law.
In violation of fundamental rights
SyRI and its deployment violates Dutch law, the Constitution and international human rights treaties such as the ECHR and the EU Charter. The Dutch state is required to demonstrate that the large-scale privacy intrusion that SyRI entails is necessary and proportionate to its goals. However, the State does not substantiate this in any way.
UN expresses concerns about SyRI
The plaintiffs are not alone in their objections to SyRI. The UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, decided to write an amicus brief to the court outlining his concerns about SyRI. He said the lawsuit against SyRI is of international importance for the use of digital technologies in a welfare state and its impact on the rights of the most vulnerable citizens.
SyRI affects the interests of all Dutch people. At the same time, the system is now deployed only in the poorest neighborhoods of some cities. Most of the neighborhoods where SyRI has been deployed have above-average numbers of vulnerable citizens and the majority of residents are from immigrant backgrounds. Therefore, the use of SyRI also seems to violate the prohibition of discrimination.
Dragnet operations into private lives of unsuspected citizens
The parties to this proceeding are not opposed to government fraud. They believe only that this should be done on the basis of concrete suspicion – not that dragnet operations into the private lives of unsuspected Dutch citizens should be used to look for a possible risk of fraud. This disproportionate method does more harm than good, according to the plaintiffs. There are better and less intrusive forms of fraud prevention than SyRI. Also, the total of five SyRI investigations announced since the legal introduction have now turned tens of thousands of citizens inside out, but so far have not detected a single fraudster.
The plaintiffs are represented by mr. A. Ekker (Ekker Advocatuur) and mr. D. Linders (SOLV Advocaten) and is coordinated by PILP.
