LinkedIn Allows Recruiters to Filter Job Candidates by Race

LinkedIn implemented features that appear to let recruiters filter potential job candidates by their demographic characteristics.

Users on the professional social media network who edit the demographic information on their profiles, such as their race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and current or former military service, can let the platform use the information for “diversity in recruiting” tools, which “allow your demographic information to be used in LinkedIn recruiting features to help recruiters find a more diverse group of qualified candidates.”

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LinkedIn meanwhile updated a webpage one month ago explaining that the platform “may use your personal demographic information in recruiting features to surface qualified members that may diversify the group of candidates displayed to recruiters” who work for companies with “public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Answers to the personal demographic questions are “never directly shared with recruiters or companies,” the webpage added, noting that users can “opt out of this use of your personal demographic information in your settings.”

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LinkedIn, which software behemoth Microsoft purchased in 2016, also leverages user demographic information for removing “unfair bias from our products,” examining data such as salary ranges and career trends for “purposes such as assessing and improving pay equality,” and providing “aggregate insights to help employers and hiring managers in their efforts to identify more diverse candidates,” according to the webpage.

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LinkedIn faced backlash two years ago for a diversity training program that encouraged participants to “be less white.” The firm removed the course after employees from participating companies leaked slides from the training online.