Het algoritme adviseert jaarlijks bij de beoordeling van zo’n 750.000 visumaanvragen.
By Fleur Damen for NOS.nl on August 6, 2026
Rechters tikken overheid op de vingers over migratie-algoritmes
New Dutch profiling standard allows for discriminatory practices
A multi-stakeholder working group, with the support of the Dutch standards authority (NEN), has created a non-binding technical agreement for profiling algorithms. Unfortunately, the standard does not prohibit discriminatory practices.
Continue reading “New Dutch profiling standard allows for discriminatory practices”Risk profiling systems used to identify potential offenders are in breach of international law and must be banned
The widespread use of risk profiling systems by public authorities in law enforcement, social security and migration is incompatible with international human rights law and must be banned, Amnesty International said in a new report.
From Amnesty International on June 10, 2026
Staatscommissie: “Stop data-driven profiling”
The research committee created by the Dutch Parliament (‘Staatscommissie’) following the child benefits scandal has issued a new report urging the government to stop data-driven profiling for fraud and crime detection, now and in the future.
Continue reading “Staatscommissie: “Stop data-driven profiling””Probation service used error-ridden algorithms to assess risks
Yet another Dutch government department has become embroiled in a row over the use of algorithms – this time the unit which assesses whether prisoners are likely to re-offend.
From DutchNews.nl on February 13, 2026
The end of the Top400/600: What will come next?
After tireless campaigning, advocacy, and legal action by the affected communities themselves and together with NGO’s such as Bits of Freedom, PILP, and Controle Alt Delete the Amsterdam municipality seems to have relented: the Top 400 and Top 600 will be no more.
Continue reading “The end of the Top400/600: What will come next?”Dutch responses to the DUO scandal miss the point: technical fixes won’t solve the fundamental problems of predictive optimisation
The DUO discrimination scandal, where more than 10.000 students were discriminated against, has led to multiple initiatives that aim to prevent this from happening again. None of these addresses the core problems of “predictive optimisation”.
Continue reading “Dutch responses to the DUO scandal miss the point: technical fixes won’t solve the fundamental problems of predictive optimisation”Racist Technology in Action: Dutch banks racially profile Muslims and Palestinian activists, alleging “terrorist activity”
In another example of racial profiling in the Netherlands, banks such as ING, Rabobank, and ABN Amro have subjected Muslims and Palestinian activists to intrusive, discriminatory checks based on allegations of “terrorist financing.”
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Dutch banks racially profile Muslims and Palestinian activists, alleging “terrorist activity””50% of the profiling algorithms used by the Dutch tax office are discriminatory and therefore unlawful according to the Data Protection Authority
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.
Continue reading “50% of the profiling algorithms used by the Dutch tax office are discriminatory and therefore unlawful according to the Data Protection Authority”New York City uses a secret Child Welfare Algorithm
New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has been secretly using an AI risk assessment system since 2018 to flag families for additional investigation. This Markup investigation reveals how this algorithm mainly affects families of colour and raises serious questions about algorithmic bias against racialised and poor families in child welfare.
Continue reading “New York City uses a secret Child Welfare Algorithm”Racist Technology in Action: How the municipality of Amsterdam tried to roll out a ‘fair’ fraud detection algorithm. Spoiler alert: it was a disaster
Amsterdam officials’ technosolutionist way of thinking struck once again: they believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights through their “Smart Check” AI system.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: How the municipality of Amsterdam tried to roll out a ‘fair’ fraud detection algorithm. Spoiler alert: it was a disaster”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
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”Racist Technology in Action: The Dutch Belastingdienst’s ‘Risk Analysis Model’
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’”In Spain, an algorithm used by police to ‘combat’ gender violence determines whether women live or die
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”Amnesty demands the Dutch government stop using any and all risk profiling
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”Dutch government’s toxic relation with using data to detect social welfare fraud
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”In the Netherlands, algorithmic discrimination is everywhere according to the Dutch Data Protection Authority
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”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
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”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
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”Ethnic profiling is a problem in all of the Dutch government
On the International Day against Racism and Discrimination, Amnesty International Netherlands published their new research on the lack of protection by the Dutch government against racial profiling. Amnesty calls for immediate action to address the pervasive issue of ethnic profiling in law enforcement practices.
Continue reading “Ethnic profiling is a problem in all of the Dutch government”The Allegheny Family Screening Tool’s Overestimation of Utility and Risk
A report on the Allegheny Family Screening Tool (pilot for predictive risk modeling in family policing) and its overestimation of utility and risk.
By Aaron Horowitz, Ana Gutierrez, Anjana Samant, Kath Xu, Marissa Gerchick, Noam Shemtov, Sophie Beiers, Tarak Shah, and Tobi Jegede for Logic on December 13, 2023
The child benefits scandal: no lessons learned
“It could happen again tomorrow” is one of the main devastating conclusions of the parlementary inquiry following the child benefits scandal.
Continue reading “The child benefits scandal: no lessons learned”Dutch Tax Office keeps breaking the law with their risk profiling algorithms
Even though the Dutch tax office (the Belastingdienst) was advised to immediately stop the use of three risk profiling algorithms, the office decided to continue their use, according to this reporting by Follow the Money.
Continue reading “Dutch Tax Office keeps breaking the law with their risk profiling algorithms”Racist Technology in Action: Flagged as risky simply for requesting social assistance in Veenendaal, The Netherlands
This collaborative investigative effort by Spotlight Bureau, Lighthouse Reports and Follow the Money, dives into the story of a Moroccan-Dutch family in Veenendaal which was targeted for fraud by the Dutch government.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Flagged as risky simply for requesting social assistance in Veenendaal, The Netherlands”Dutch police used algorithm to predict violent behaviour without any safeguards
For many years the Dutch police has used a risk modeling algorithm to predict the chance that an individual suspect will commit a violent crime. Follow the Money exposed the total lack of a moral, legal, and statistical justification for its use, and now the police has stopped using the system.
Continue reading “Dutch police used algorithm to predict violent behaviour without any safeguards”Algorithm to help find fraudulent students turns out to be racist
DUO is the Dutch organisation for administering student grants. It uses an algorithm to help them decide which students get a home visit to check for fraudulent behaviour. Turns out they basically only check students of colour, and they have no clue why.
Continue reading “Algorithm to help find fraudulent students turns out to be racist”False Alarm: How Wisconsin Uses Race and Income to Label Students “High Risk”
The Markup found the state’s decade-old dropout prediction algorithms don’t work and may be negatively influencing how educators perceive students of color.
By Todd Feathers for The Markup on April 27, 2023
Racist Technology in Action: You look similar to someone we didn’t like → Dutch visa denied
Ignoring earlier Dutch failures in automated decision making, and ignoring advice from its own experts, the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to cut costs and cut corners through implementing a discriminatory profiling system to process visa applications.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: You look similar to someone we didn’t like → Dutch visa denied”Racist Technology in Action: Rotterdam’s welfare fraud prediction algorithm was biased
The algorithm that the city of Rotterdam used to predict the risk of welfare fraud fell into the hands of journalists. Turns out that the system was biased against marginalised groups like young mothers and people who don’t have Dutch as their first language.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Rotterdam’s welfare fraud prediction algorithm was biased”Amsterdam’s Top400 project stigmatises and over-criminalises youths
A critical, in depth report on Top400 – a crime prevention project by the Amsterdam municipality – which targets and polices minors (between the ages of 12 to 23) has emphasised the stigmatising, discriminatory, and invasive effects of the Top400 on youths and their families.
Continue reading “Amsterdam’s Top400 project stigmatises and over-criminalises youths”The devastating consequences of risk based profiling by the Dutch police
Diana Sardjoe writes for Fair Trials about how her sons were profiled by the Amsterdam police on the basis of risk models (a form of predictive policing) called ‘Top600’ (for adults) and ‘Top400’ for people aged 12 to 23). Because of this profiling her sons were “continually monitored and harassed by police.”
Continue reading “The devastating consequences of risk based profiling by the Dutch police”Shocking report by the Algemene Rekenkamer: state algorithms are a shitshow
The Algemene Rekenkamer (Netherlands Court of Audit) looked into nine different algorithms used by the Dutch state. It found that only three of them fulfilled the most basic of requirements.
Continue reading “Shocking report by the Algemene Rekenkamer: state algorithms are a shitshow”Racist Technology in Action: U.S. universities using race in their risk algorithms as a predictor for student success
An investigation by The Markup in March 2021, revealed that some universities in the U.S. are using a software and risk algorithm that uses the race of student as one of the factors to predict and evaluate how successful a student may be. Several universities have described race as a “high impact predictor”. The investigation found large disparities in how the software treated students of different races, with Black students deemed a four times higher risk than their White peers.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: U.S. universities using race in their risk algorithms as a predictor for student success”