The Use of Secret Algorithms to Combat Social Fraud in Belgium

Since the nineties, digital administration in Belgium has been built according to an interesting and novel model of data decentralisation within the State. The aim is to protect the privacy of citizens, as soon as the databases are set up. This model therefore embodies the concept of "privacy by design" since then enshrined by the RGPD. Nevertheless, certain tools and practices that have appeared more recently are cause for concern. They seem to destroy the protection of privacy initially organized. In this study, we focus on the OASIS tool, a datawarehouse to which datamatching and datamining techniques are applied to fight against social fraud. The law that seems to frame this tool was adopted very late and is unclear. The information available about OASIS is scarce, even when explicitly requested from the administration. However, this tool makes it possible to collect a large amount of data about many citizens for a very broad purpose, the fight against fraud. There are reasonable grounds for concern that the requirements of legality, transparency and control, which are essential in a democratic state that respects human rights, are not being met in this area. Furthermore, this study highlights the similarities between OASIS and the SYRI tool in the Netherlands. Recently, a decision of the Hague Court recently criticised SYRI by ordering that it should no longer be used, which further reinforces the need to pay close attention to OASIS in Belgium.