Belgium - Federal government - Legislative proposal to amend the law of April 11, 1994 on public access to government, to provide more transparency on the use of algorithms by the government

Belgium - Federal government - Legislative proposal to amend the law of April 11, 1994 on public access to government, to provide more transparency on the use of algorithms by the government

This proposal aims to impose transparency requirements on the algorithms used by Belgian public services.

Summary

Government agencies must, according to the legislative proposal:

• Disclose the algorithmic processing operations used online, especially when used for individual decisions.
• When providing documents, communicate the characteristics of the algorithm to the person to whom the document relates. The citizen must be able to obtain an understandable and clear response to questions about which characteristics were used to make decisions.
• The Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA for short) is a control procedure established by Article 35 GDPR. It is carried out when the processing of personal data by a (private or public) entity is likely to present a high risk to the rights and freedoms of the individuals affected by such processing. This assessment should be made public with respect to the tools used by the public authority.