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OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

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Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#11

Post by thesimon »

orless wrote: post #2

When applying for a loan, mobile phone contract, or even trying to rent an apartment in Germany, the Schufa score - Germany's credit rating - is decisive. If you have a few "points" too little, your application is refused. (Computer says "No" to your new smartphone or apartment.) However, the calculation of these credit scores - done by the private Schufa company - is fully intransparent. The formula is a trade secre…

How do you want to reconstruct it exactly? The SCHUFA scores are only accessible for free once a year, so it would take quite some years to reconstruct them.

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#12

Post by vavoida »

a254613e wrote: post #9

Reading the funding goals[0] I don't understand why there is a funding goal of 30k to develop... an OCR app? Wouldn't it make more sense, from both financial and technical standpoint to accept raw images then do the OCR server side? Server side OCR probably has more resources, and can utilize better OCR software. And you can re-run it after some time on every image if the results aren't that accurate. [0] - https://w…

just raw images would cause major privacy & data protection issues

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#13

Post by eggpy »

thesimon wrote: post #11
orless wrote: post #2

When applying for a loan, mobile phone contract, or even trying to rent an apartment in Germany, the Schufa score - Germany's credit rating - is decisive. If you have a few "points" too little, your application is refused. (Computer says "No" to your new smartphone or apartment.) However, the calculation of these credit scores - done by the private Schufa company - is fully intransparent. The formula is a trade secre…

How do you want to reconstruct it exactly? The SCHUFA scores are only accessible for free once a year, so it would take quite some years to reconstruct them.

If you're going one at a time. You can improve this by increasing your number of datapoints (people's scores)

> For this purpose we call for data donations:

> Everybody can request their free SCHUFA-Score from Schufa under selbstauskunft.net/schufa and donate the data to our project.

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#16

Post by akie »

vavoida wrote: post #7
chrisper wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you also cite the part where you are being financially supported by Bertelsmann Stiftung who have a competing product (Arvato Infoscore)? Though I am not sure if it is as bad as they claim...

a. is disclosed by our partner algorithmwatch b. the funding is not for this project c. see https://twitter.com/OpenSchufa/status/964408780162150400 "Die SCHUFA ist die bekannteste Auskunftei & Marktführer; wir fordern in unserer Projektbeschreibung u.a.: "Die SCHUFA & andere Auskunfteien müssen öffentlich & permanent darlegen, wie ihr Score funktioniert bzw. welche Modelle/Annahmen ihm zu Grunde liegen (Nachvollzieh…

For everyone not fluent in German:

c. "The SCHUFA is the best known credit reporter & market leader. In our project description we ask: The SCHUFA & other credit bureaus must publicly and permanently explain how their score works and which models / assumptions are based on it (traceability)"

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#17

Post by aluhut »

bluesign wrote: post #15

If this is really ‘open’, how we can access submitted data? Otherwise comments here about this project funded by competitor is making this a bit fishy.

Is Bertelsmann a competitor?

Nevermind, just read it below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvato

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#18

Post by vavoida »

bluesign wrote: post #15

If this is really ‘open’, how we can access submitted data? Otherwise comments here about this project funded by competitor is making this a bit fishy.

1. date is not open yet, first people have to request the data (will take probalby 4-6 weeks until they get the credit scores)

2. see below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16391885

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#19

Post by expertentipp »

SCHUFA is demanding a passport copy from EU citizens to obtain the annual unpaid data overview report. A citizen of an EU country residing in Germany is under no obligation to hold a passport. I don't understand how until now no one torn the SCHUFA credit bureau into pieces over it.

https://i.imgur.com/nEZRJDv.png

Re: OpenSCHUFA – Reverse-engineering the algorithm of the German credit score agency

#20

Post by philfrasty »

orless wrote: post #2

When applying for a loan, mobile phone contract, or even trying to rent an apartment in Germany, the Schufa score - Germany's credit rating - is decisive. If you have a few "points" too little, your application is refused. (Computer says "No" to your new smartphone or apartment.) However, the calculation of these credit scores - done by the private Schufa company - is fully intransparent. The formula is a trade secre…

„...even trying to rent an apartment in Germany...“

While this MAY be true in a lot of cases it certainly is not all the time. From my experience 50/50.

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