The Dutch tax office is plagued by one problem after another. The Child Benefits Scandal was supposed to be a wake-up call, but apparently, their system use is so atrophied that they can’t seem to do what is needed. Follow the Money reports on a letter from the Dutch data protection authority to the Minister of Finance, which argues that the tax office uses 50 algorithms that use discriminatory profiling and are therefore potentially unlawful.
Fatma Çapkurt, an academic expert on the legal protection against profiling, was astonished to read the letter:
You would expect that after the childcare benefits scandal, a cultural shift would have taken place and that they would immediately check all risk selection systems for lawfulness. The fact that this hasn’t happened shows that the constitutional culture is not in good shape. […] These systems have been running for many years. Millions of decisions may have been taken illegally.
The tax office argues that it has to use machines to make selections and that it is currently working on getting all its algorithms in order. The data protection authority strangely seems to be willing to wait for an action plan. We agree with Amnesty when they argue that the tax office should switch to random spot checks immediately until they can prove that their algorithms aren’t discriminatory.
See: Meer dan 50 algoritmes van de Belastingdienst zijn illegaal, zegt de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens at Follow the Money (FTM).
Image by Rosa Snijders, a crop from the original Follow the Money article.