Christo Wilson
Associate Professor, Khoury College of Computer Science, Northeastern University
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Auditing for Bias in Resume Search Engines
There is growing awareness and concern about the role of automation in hiring, and the potential for these tools to reinforce historic inequalities in the labor market. I will present the results of an algorithm audit of the resume search engines offered by several of the largest online hiring platforms, to understand the relationship between a candidate’s gender and their rank in search results. We audited these platform with respect to individual and group fairness, as well as indirect and direct discrimination. I conclude with a brief discussion of the social and policy implications of our study.
Bio:Christo Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. He is a founding member of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern, and serves as director of the BS in Cybersecurity program. Professor Wilson’s research focuses on online security and privacy, with a specific interest in algorithmic auditing. Algorithmic auditing is an emerging, interdisciplinary area that uses experimental techniques to measure the black-box algorithmic systems that pervade daily life in order to increase transparency and accountability of these systems. His work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, a Sloan Fellowship, the Mozilla Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the Data Transparency Lab, the European Commission, Google, Pymetrics, and Verisign Labs.
