Press Release: CDT & Top Civil Rights Groups Publish Standards to Ensure Fairness in Hiring Practices that Use Automated Tech

In partnership with leading civil rights organizations, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) today published new recommendations and guidance to ensure that tools used to make employment decisions are fair and equitable. The Civil Rights Standards for 21st Century Employment Selection Procedures is the result of a year-long collaboration between CDT, the Association for the Advancement of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), and Upturn. The Standards come at a time of increased scrutiny of the discriminatory effects of AI-driven technology by regulators in the U.S. and European Union.

CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens says:

“There’s a new and dangerous form of discrimination in the workplace. Technologies that screen job candidates using AI can systematically exclude people of color, women, disabled people, older workers, and others who are underrepresented in the workforce.

Discrimination in hiring is an urgent civil rights issue, which is why CDT has spent the past year working with some of the most influential civil rights organizations in the U.S. to develop standards that show policymakers, industry groups, and employers how to effectively assess and oversee these tools.”

…