AlgorithmWatch wants to shine a light on where and how algorithmic discrimination can take place. Do you have reason to believe that algorithmic discrimination may have taken place? Then we ask you to report this to us to help us better understand the extent of the issue and the havoc algorithmic systems can wreak on our lives. Your hints can help us make algorithmic discrimination more visible and strengthen our advocacy for appropriate guardrails.
From AlgorithmWatch on May 19, 2025
The Dutch Institute for Human Rights has published an evaluation framework for risk profiling intending to prevent discrimination based on race or nationality.
Continue reading “Dutch Institute for Human Rights creates an evaluation framework for risk profiling and urges organisations to do more to prevent discrimination based on race and nationality”
We all know that racist algorithms can harm people across many sectors, and healthcare is no exception. In a powerful commentary published in CellPress, Ferryman et al. argue that racism must be treated as a core ethical issue in healthcare AI, not merely a flaw to be patched after deployment.
Continue reading “‘Ethical’ AI in healthcare has a racism problem, and it needs to be fixed ASAP”
For about 20 years, the Dutch tax office used a home-brewed computer system (RAM) that brought the information about millions of taxpayers into one model. KPMG has looked at how the Belastingdienst used this system, and their findings are shocking.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: The Dutch Belastingdienst’s ‘Risk Analysis Model’”
Fiscale controle: Voor toezicht op belastingbetalers was het RAM-systeem van de Belastingdienst cruciaal. Maar van controle of beveiliging was nauwelijks sprake. Donderdag debatteert de Tweede Kamer over de situatie bij de dienst.
By Derk Stokmans and Stefan Vermeulen for NRC on March 12, 2025
Lobna Hemid. Stefany González Escarraman. Eva Jaular (and her 11-month-old baby). The lives of these three women and an infant, amongst many others, tragically ended due to gender-related killings in Spain. As reported in this article, they were all classified as “low” or “negligible” risk by VioGén, despite reporting abuse to the police. In the case of Lobna Hemid, after reporting her husband’s abuse to the police and being assessed as “low risk” by VioGén, the police provided her with minimal protection, and weeks later, her husband stabbed her to death.
Continue reading “In Spain, an algorithm used by police to ‘combat’ gender violence determines whether women live or die”
De Nederlandse politie en veiligheidsdiensten kennen een traditie van moslimdiscriminatie, schrijft Evelyn Austin, directeur van Bits of Freedom. Zij vreest dat moslims wederom de dupe zijn als politie meer bevoegdheden krijgt om online te surveilleren.
By Evelyn Austin for Het Parool on February 8, 2025
Amnesty takes a deep dive into the shameful racial and socio-economic discrimination against students in the DUO case (about which we’ve written here, here, and here) in their briefing titled Profiled Without Protection: Students in the Netherlands Hit By Discriminatory Fraud Detection System.
Continue reading “Amnesty demands the Dutch government stop using any and all risk profiling”
SafeRent Solutions, an AI-powered tenant screening company, settled a lawsuit alleging that its algorithm disproportionately discriminated against Black and Hispanic renters and those relying on housing vouchers.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: AI tenant screening fails the ‘fairness’ test”
How can algorithms become fairer? An essay by scientist and speaker Robin Pocornie.
By Robin Pocornie for BASF on December 5, 2024
Exclusive: Age, disability, marital status and nationality influence decisions to investigate claims, prompting fears of ‘hurt first, fix later’ approach.
By Robert Booth for The Guardian on December 6, 2024
Behind a veil of secrecy, the social security agency deploys discriminatory algorithms searching for fraud epidemic it has invented.
By Ahmed Abdigadir, Anna Tiberg, Daniel Howden, Eva Constantaras, Frederick Laurin, Gabriel Geiger, Henrik Malmsten, Iben Ljungmark, Justin-Casimir Braun, Sascha Granberg, and Thomas Molén for Lighthouse Reports on November 27, 2024
More than half of students are now using generative AI, casting a shadow over campuses as tutors and students turn on each other and hardworking learners are caught in the flak. Will Coldwell reports on a broken system.
By Will Coldwell for The Guardian on December 15, 2024
DUO gebruikte een discriminerend risicoprofileringssysteem om studenten te selecteren voor controle op misbruik van de uitwonendenbeurs.
From Amnesty International (NL) on November 21, 2024
Het kabinet betaalt boetes en teruggevorderde studiefinanciering terug aan (oud-)studenten die de uitwonendenbeurs ontvingen. Dat doet het kabinet omdat in het selectieproces van de controles op de uitwonendenbeurs sprake was van indirecte discriminatie. Het bewijs dat bij deze controles is verkregen om te besluiten of iemand wel of niet uitwonend was, had niet gebruikt mogen worden. Dat maakt de besluiten onrechtmatig en deze worden daarom teruggedraaid, schrijft minister Bruins (Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap) aan de Tweede Kamer. Hij reserveert € 61 miljoen om de zaak recht te zetten.
From Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO) on November 11, 2024
The latest episode in the twisted series titled ‘The Dutch government is wildly discriminatory, using citizen’s data to seek out social welfare fraud’ has just come out.
Continue reading “Dutch government’s toxic relation with using data to detect social welfare fraud”
We’ve written twice before about the racist impact of DUO’s student fraud detection efforts. The Dutch government has now decided to pay back all the fines and the study financing they held back for all students that were checked between 2012 and 2023.
Continue reading “Dutch government has to pay back 61 million euros to students who were discriminated against through DUO’s fraud profiling operation”
Banks have a requirement to ‘know their customers’ and to look for money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Their vigilante efforts lead to racist outcomes.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Anti-money laundering efforts by Dutch banks disproportionately affect people with a non-Western migration background”
Common Sense, an education platform that advocates and advises for an equitable and safe school environment, published a report last month on the adoption of generative AI at home and school. Parents, teachers, and children were surveyed to better understand the adoption and effects of the technology.
Continue reading “Falsely Flagged: The AI-Driven Discrimination Black Students Face”
In its 2023 annual report, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch Data Protection Authority) is dismayed by how much algorithmic discrimination it encounters while doing its oversight.
Continue reading “In the Netherlands, algorithmic discrimination is everywhere according to the Dutch Data Protection Authority”
An investigation by The Markup and Outlier Media shows how the law in Michigan allows car insurers to take location into account when deciding on a premium, penalizing the state’s Black population.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Michigan car insurers are allowed to charge a higher premium in Black neighbourhoods”
Let us explain. With cats
By Aaron Sankin and Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett for The Markup on July 18, 2024
Ondanks de toeslagenaffaire gingen vorig jaar overheidsorganisaties door met het gebruik van ‘ondoordachte algoritmes’, schrijft de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.
By Jeroen Piersma for Het Financieele Dagblad on July 2, 2024
Er werd beloofd dat deze systemen eerlijker zouden worden, maar uit het nieuwe jaarverslag van de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens blijkt dat er sindsdien weinig is verbeterd. Algoritmes categoriseren mensen met bepaalde kenmerken nog steeds onterecht als risico. Noëlle Cecilia, medeoprichter van Brush AI (@ai.brush) was zondag te gast bij Mandy. Zij maakt algoritmes voor bedrijven en deed een jaar lang onderzoek naar de eerlijkheid en discriminatie ervan. Zij legt ons uit waarom de mindset moet veranderen bij het ontwikkelen van AI-systemen.
By Noëlle Cecilia for Instagram on July 9, 2024
Automated decision-making systems contain hidden discriminatory prejudices. We’ll explain the causes, possible consequences, and the reasons why existing laws do not provide sufficient protection against algorithmic discrimination.
By Pie Sombetzki for AlgorithmWatch on June 26, 2024
In 2018, Lauren Rhue showed that two leading emotion detection software products had a racial bias against Black Men: Face++ thought they were more angry, and Microsoft AI thought they were more contemptuous.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: AI detection of emotion rates Black basketball players as ‘angrier’ than their White counterparts”
AI that purports to read our feelings may enhance user experience but concerns over misuse and bias mean the field is fraught with potential dangers.
By Ned Carter Miles for The Guardian on June 23, 2024
The New York Times published a fascinating overview of the American census forms since the late 18th century. It shows how the form keeps trying to ‘capture’ the country’s demographics, “creating and reshaping the ever-changing views of racial and ethnic identity.”
Continue reading “The datafication of race and ethnicity”
Our own Hans de Zwart was a guest in the ‘Met Nerds om Tafel’ podcast. With Karen Palmer (creator of Consensus Gentium, a film about surveillance that watches you back), they discussed the role of art and storytelling in getting us ready for the future.
Continue reading “Podcast: Art as a prophetic activity for the future of AI”
MyLife.com is one of those immoral American companies that collect personal information to sell onwards as profiles on the one hand, while at the same suggesting to the people that are being profiled that incriminating information about them exists online that they can get removed by buying a subscription (that then does nothing and auto-renews in perpetuity).
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: MyLife.com and discriminatory predation”
In the run-up to the EU elections, AlgorithmWatch has investigated which election-related images can be generated by popular AI systems. Two of the largest providers don’t adhere to security measures they have announced themselves recently.
By Nicolas Kayser-Bril for AlgorithmWatch on May 29, 2024
Last year, Investico revealed how DUO, the Dutch organization for administering student grants, was using a racist algorithm to decide which students would get a home visit to check for fraudulent behaviour. The Minister of Education immediately stopped the use of the algorithm.
Continue reading “Students with a non-European migration background had a 3.0 times higher chance of receiving an unfounded home visit from the Dutch student grants fraud department”
For more than a year now, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ignored advice from its experts and continued its use of discriminatory risk profiling of visa applicants.
Continue reading “Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs dislikes the conclusions of a solid report that marks their visa process as discriminatory so buys a shoddy report saying the opposite”
The Dutch Institute for Human Rights has commissioned research exploring the possible risks for discrimination and exclusion relating to the use of algorithms in education in the Netherlands.
Continue reading “Dutch Institute of Human Rights tells the government: “Test educational tools for possible discriminatory effects””
The “I am not a typo” campaign is asking the tech giants to update their name dictionaries and stop autocorrecting the 41% of names given to babies in England and Wales.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Autocorrect is Western- and White-focused”
DUO heeft de onafhankelijke stichting Algorithm Audit vervolgonderzoek laten doen naar de manier waarop DUO tussen 2012 en 2023 controleerde of een student terecht studiefinanciering ontving voor uitwonende studenten of niet. De conclusies van het vervolgonderzoek bevestigen dat studenten met een migratieachtergrond hierbij indirect zijn gediscrimineerd.
From Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO) on May 21, 2024
Het was te mooi om waar te zijn: een algoritme om fraude in de bijstand op te sporen. Ondanks waarschuwingen bleef de gemeente Rotterdam er bijna vier jaar lang in geloven. Een handjevol ambtenaren, zich onvoldoende bewust van ethische risico’s, kon jarenlang ongestoord experimenteren met de data van kwetsbare mensen.
By Romy van Dijk and Saskia Klaassen for Vers Beton on October 23, 2023
Discriminerend algoritme: Volgens een onderzoek discrimineerde het algoritme dat Buitenlandse Zaken gebruikt om visumaanvragen te beoordelen. Uit onvrede met die conclusie vroeg het ministerie om een second opinion.
By Carola Houtekamer and Merijn Rengers for NRC on May 1, 2024
Bloomberg did a clever experiment: they had OpenAI’s GPT rank resumes and found that it shows a gender and racial bias just on the basis of the name of the candidate.
Continue reading “OpenAI’s GPT sorts resumes with a racial bias”
In 2020, two NGOs finally forced the UK Home Office’s hand, compelling it to abandon its secretive and racist algorithm for sorting visitor visa applications. Foxglove and The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) had been battling the algorithm for years, arguing that it is a form of institutionalized racism and calling it “speedy boarding for white people.”
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: The UK Home Office’s Sorting Algorithm and the Racist Violence of Borders”Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.