Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

How should automated profiling be regulated?

Objective

Profiling may threaten values that the law aims to protect, and undermine goals that the law aims to achieve. Profiling involves automated processing of personal or other data to develop profiles that can be used to make decisions about people. Profiling can be used in different contexts. For instance, (i) with retail price discrimination, online shops charge different consumers different prices for the same or similar products. (ii) Lenders use profiling to estimate a consumer’s creditworthiness. Lenders can adapt interest rates to certain consumers, or refuse to lend to them. (iii) Predictive policing refers to the use of profiling technology to predict criminal behaviour.However profiling has drawbacks. For instance, profiling can discriminate unintentionally, when an algorithm learns from data reflecting biased human decisions. Additionally, profiling is opaque: people may not know why they are treated differently. Making profiling transparent is difficult, among other reasons because of the complexity and the possibly ever-changing nature of algorithms.
The project’s overarching research question is: considering the rationales for the rules in different sectors, is additional regulation needed, and if so: how should profiling be regulated? The project aims to develop guidelines for regulating profiling.
I examine profiling in three sectors: retail price discrimination, consumer credit, and predictive policing. For each case study, I analyse current rules that apply to profiling. Next, I analyse these rules’ rationales, which are partly different for each sector. A rule may, for example, aim to protect a human right, or express a legal principle, such as equality, contractual freedom, or the right to a fair trial. Rules may also have economic rationales, which are different for each sector. Drawing from the three case studies, I develop guidelines to regulate profiling. Policymakers, NGOs, and other stakeholders expressed great interest in the results.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2016

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 172 800,00
Address
PLEINLAAN 2
1050 BRUSSEL
Belgium

See on map

Region
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 172 800,00
My booklet 0 0