Algorithmic valoration before human rights and the European Convention on Human Rights and the General Data Protection Regulation: The SyRI case

Abstract

Last 5thof February 2020, the District Court of The Hague published a pronouncement on the System of Risk Indicators (SyRI) by which it considers: (1) that it is lawful to use such an instrument whenever a public interest is involved and appropriate measures are taken to guarantee the minimum interference in the right of privacy; and (2) that, since the specific implementation of SyRI does not offer those appropriate guarantees, SyRI legislation does not respect the proportionality judgment between interference and the right of privacy according to article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Through this essay we reflect in detail on the considerations of the Court on the right of privacy, the massive collection of data and the opacity of algorithms for the analysis of big data.