The UWV illegally collected data on benefit recipients. The government agency had surreptitiously placed cookies on its UWV.nl and Werk.nl websites to track users. NOS and Nieuwsuur recently reported on this.
It also tracked how long people were logged in. Visitors to the UWV websites could thus be identified and linked to their IP address. This enabled the UWV to find out whether people were receiving WW benefits while abroad. It is only allowed to go abroad during WW benefit under strict conditions. The UWV analyzed the collected information with the fraud algorithm Risk Scan Stay Abroad.
Based on an unknown number of characteristics, the algorithm assigned a risk score to people. If this score was high, the UWV conducted further research. All visitors to UWV sites were tracked by the agency in this way. However, because there was no legal basis for this, the UWV stopped doing this early this year. Hundreds of investigations based on the given risk scores have been terminated. Even in cases of demonstrable fraud. The UWV did not want Social Affairs Minister Van Gennip to inform the House of Representatives about this in order, she said, not to make fraudsters any wiser. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens asked the benefits agency for clarification.
