"Like zombies" about to switch to a "technological dystopia" where "the welfare state accentuates inequalities and reinforces the isolation of the poor". It is in these terms that Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, talks about countries that are increasingly automating their social missions.
Its annual report, to be presented to the UN General Assembly on Friday, October 18, is a violent indictment of the temptation of states to rely on the technological all in the name of efficiency. "Numerous examples to our knowledge show that the introduction of digital technology into the functioning of the welfare state has led to a reduction in budgets, a decrease in the number of beneficiaries of aid, the elimination of certain services, the imposition of tougher sanctions and a complete reversal of the traditional notion that the state is accountable to individuals, "says Philip Alston.
Developed in a hurry
According to this former New York lawyer, taxpayers on the wrong side of the digital divide are the first victims of this race to the digital authorities. In the United Kingdom, for example, "11.9 million people (22% of the population) do not have the necessary digital skills" to navigate the maze of online public services, the report says. This handicap mainly concerns the most financially fragile individuals, who thus find themselves de facto cut off from access to sometimes vital aid.
Even when people know how to access online services, things can quickly go wrong. In Sweden, a computer system linking the employment agency services to the unemployed has proved so complex to use that more than 15% of the decisions taken to support jobseekers have been found to be wrong. In 2018, Stockholm has decided to completely drop the controversial software.
Technology solutions are also too often hastily developed by administrations too eager to be at the forefront of innovation, regrets Philip Alston. This is what we have seen, in 2016, nearly 40,000 Australians who received misstatements of payment of erroneous debts calculated by poorly programmed algorithms. A huge scandal that resulted in several class actions against the company behind the debt collection program.
Threat to human rights
The tendency of states to outsource certain aspects of their policy of redistributing wealth to private firms is, moreover, one of the main criticisms made by Philip Aston to governments. These companies tend to "impose additional charges and incite taxpayers to subscribe to paid ancillary services", notes the rapporteur. Between 2015 and 2018 in South Africa, a state-run enterprise to automate the distribution of aid to people with disabilities, retirees, or single-parent families has been enriched on the backs of these frail people with strong reinforcements additional costs and reselling the personal data collected.
This recourse to private companies in the Tech sector, whose "activities are often poorly regulated is also particularly problematic with regard to human rights," warns the special rapporteur. These companies collect the data and make it available to authorities who may succumb to the temptation to use it for surveillance purposes. India, with the help of large groups such as French Safran, has set up the world's largest biometric identification system that has recorded data for more than one billion people. "It would have been used to harass political opponents," says the report.
And it is not the rich who drink. They do not need to resort to state aid, unlike the poor who are "in fact forced to mourn their right to privacy in exchange for access to financial support from the government. State, "says Philip Aston.
The UN Special Rapporteur is not on his first offensive against the perverse effects of the use of new technologies by the welfare state. He had already denounced these drifts in 2018, but focusing on the British case. He also acknowledges in the conclusion of his report that it has become one of his main battlehors: "I can be criticized for not being objective, because I do not mention all the potential benefits of digital State service. But I leave this work to the fervent militants of the technological cause, who are much more numerous and noisy than those who call for more restraint. "
However, for him, if we do not look very quickly at the dangers of this evolution, society could well be divided between those who can "afford autonomous or flying cars and personal robotic assistants", while the more poor will be monitored and "sanctioned at the slightest misstep by an administration" doped with artificial intelligence.