The impacts of OpenSCHUFA on credit scoring transparency in Germany

Walter Palmetshofer

20 Mar 2019, 9:30 a.m.
Room D (Chateau)

In early 2018, Open Knowledge Foundation Germany and Algorithm Watch launched the project OpenSCHUFA, which took data donated by the public and reverse engineered the algorithms of Schufa, Germany’s credit rating system.

In ten months this project generated more than 3,000 data donations, making it the most successful data crowdsourcing campaign in Germany.

The results showed a number of anomalies in the data, including wrongly-applied bad credit ratings and inaccurate data, as well as poor oversight.

This findings reached a mass audience, gaining huge coverage in Germany and causing the Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection to act.

Learn of the core elements and impact of this successful Civic Tech campaign, and the next steps planned by OpenSCHUFA.

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