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Incident 336: UK Home Office's Sham Marriage Detection Algorithm Reportedly Flagged Certain Nationalities Disproportionately

Description: UK Home Office's opaque algorithm to detect sham marriages flagged some nationalities for investigation more than others, raising fears surrounding discrimination based on nationality and age.

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Alleged: UK Home Office developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed UK immigrant newlyweds.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
336
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2015-03-01
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

1.1. Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Discrimination and Toxicity

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+2
'Sham marriages' and algorithmic decision-making in the Home Office
Home Office refuses to explain secret sham marriage algorithm
'Sham marriages' and algorithmic decision-making in the Home Office

'Sham marriages' and algorithmic decision-making in the Home Office

publiclawproject.org.uk

Home Office algorithm to detect sham marriages may contain built-in discrimination

Home Office algorithm to detect sham marriages may contain built-in discrimination

thebureauinvestigates.com

'Sham marriage' algorithm raises fears of discrimination by nationality and age

'Sham marriage' algorithm raises fears of discrimination by nationality and age

inews.co.uk

Home Office refuses to explain secret sham marriage algorithm

Home Office refuses to explain secret sham marriage algorithm

freemovement.org.uk

'Sham marriages' and algorithmic decision-making in the Home Office
publiclawproject.org.uk · 2021

The Home Office is using an algorithm to determine whether a marriage should be investigated as a ‘sham’, according to documents obtained by the Public Law Project under the Freedom of Information Act.

PLP is concerned that this algorithm m…

Home Office algorithm to detect sham marriages may contain built-in discrimination
thebureauinvestigates.com · 2021

Newlyweds could be deported if flagged as suspicious by a new Home Office algorithm that may discriminate based on nationality, the Bureau can reveal. The system, outlined in an internal government document obtained by the Public Law Projec…

'Sham marriage' algorithm raises fears of discrimination by nationality and age
inews.co.uk · 2021

Newlyweds could be deported if flagged as suspicious by a new Home Office algorithm which lawyers warned could discriminate according to nationality and the age gap between partners. 

A system designed to detect “sham marriages” divides cou…

Home Office refuses to explain secret sham marriage algorithm
freemovement.org.uk · 2021

The Home Office has rebuffed Public Law Project’s (PLP) latest attempt to find out more about the secret algorithmic criteria used to decide whether a proposed marriage should be investigated as a “sham”. 

Sham marriage investigations can b…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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