Incident 47: LinkedIn Search Prefers Male Names
Entities
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CSETv0 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsFull Description
In 2016, an investigation by the Seattle Times found that the LinkedIn search engine feature potentially possessed gender bias, as the LinkedIn search function would present any male users before female users when users would search for names that possess both male and female profiles. In addition, when a user would search a female name, a prompt would ask if the user was searching for the male equivalent of the name. The same did not occur when searching the 100 most common male names.
Short Description
An investigation by The Seattle Times in 2016 found a gender bias in LinkedIn's search engine.
Severity
Negligible
Harm Distribution Basis
Sex
AI System Description
Linkedin uses search engines trained on and guided by relative frequencies of words appearing in past queries and member profiles
System Developer
Sector of Deployment
Information and communication
Relevant AI functions
Perception, Cognition, Action
AI Techniques
Machine learning, natural language processing model
AI Applications
recommendation engine, decision support
Location
Global
Named Entities
LinkedIn, The Seattle Times, Microsoft
Technology Purveyor
Beginning Date
2016-08-31
Ending Date
2016-08-31
Near Miss
Unclear/unknown
Intent
Accident
Lives Lost
No
Data Inputs
words appearing in user past queries and member profiles
CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsHarm Distribution Basis
sex
Sector of Deployment
information and communication
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
LinkedIn says its suggested results are generated automatically by an analysis of the tendencies of past searchers.
Search for a female contact on LinkedIn, and you may get a curious result. The professional networking website asks if you m…
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- View the report at the Internet Archive
– Search for a female contact on LinkedIn, and you might get a curious result. The professional networking website asks if you meant to search for a similar-looking man's name.
A search for "Stephanie Williams," for example, brings up a pr…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
Until Sep. 7, LinkedIn users searching for female contacts on the site may have noticed some strange results. Searches for common female names were yielding suggestions for male names as well.
Take a LinkedIn search for “Stephanie Williams.…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption LinkedIn launched in 2002
LinkedIn has denied that its search algorithm has been biased towards suggesting male versions of female names in searches on its website.
A Seattle Times investigation fo…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
MOTTO Samantha Cooney is the content strategy editor at TIME.
A week after the Seattle Times reported that LinkedIn’s search engine may reflect a gender bias, the networking platform announced a tweak to its search algorithm.
The Times repo…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
The question of whether a computer can be biased or not may seem frivolous, but it could make all the difference when it comes to being found online.
Now, an investigation by a US newspaper has suggested that this bias may be present on the…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
LinkedIn.
Last week, a Seattle Times investigation revealed that LinkedIn’s search function seems to have a pretty pronounced gender bias. It turns out, when you search for a woman’s name on LinkedIn, the site has a pesky habit of asking wh…
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
Have you ever searched for a contact on LinkedIn only to have the networking site automatically prompt you to look up a man with a similar name? You're not alone. A recent investigation by the Seattle Times revealed a pervasive gender bias …
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
Sep 19, 2016 in Technology The ‘professional’ social networking site LinkedIn has been accused of having a gender bias. This is through providing more male professionals in its search results than females. "A Fresh Conversation on Gender is…
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