Judge: DUO may request travel details from students for fraud detection

The Central Appeals Board, the highest court in this case, has ruled that the Education Executive Agency, or DUO, may request travel data from students in order to combat fraud involving grants not living away from home.

The CRvB writes that requesting the data, in this case from Trans Link, constitutes a privacy violation, but that it is not so serious for the purpose of combating fraud that it is not acceptable. The infringement is limited because on the basis of the data ‘not all the student’s gaits are checked’. It can be concluded from the published decision that in this case the DUO had requested the data over a period of eighteen months.

However, the judge also notes that travel details have little value as independent evidence and that DUO will also have to provide other evidence that a student actually lived at a different address than stated. The ruling states: “Unless exceptional circumstances, travel data will not be sufficient as independent evidence to demonstrate or demonstrate that a student does not live at his BRP address. Travel data can be used as additional evidence, albeit that the evidential value than is – usually – limited.”

There was therefore not sufficient evidence in the case in question. Students are not allowed to live with their parents if they receive a grant for non-residents. In addition, they must live at the address where they are registered. When it became known that DUO requested data from Trans Link, the organization announced that it would no longer use this tool as long as the CRvB had not expressed its opinion on the matter.