Popular Culture Review 30.1
or ethnic groups . 61 However , in terms of algorithmic hiring , there are very likely to be a large number of applicants , and the procedures are likely to be administered frequently . 62 Running hundreds or thousands of permutations on data based on various variables in an attempt to cull an employer ’ s applicant pool to a manageable number means that an employer would only need to retain such information on a sample basis . 63 An employer would not need to maintain the exact algorithm , or the exact dataset used for comparison . This would further limit discovery options , as a plaintiff may have no means of examining the exact qualifications used to disqualify them from employment .
Employers should be running tests on the results to ensure the selection methods themselves are not producing a disparate impact and performing other validation studies . 64 Even if the selection criteria does produce a disparate impact on an individual , the EEOC views this information as showing that “ the total selection process does not have an adverse impact , the Federal enforcement agencies , in the exercise of their administrative and prosecutorial discretion , in usual circumstances , will not expect a user to evaluate the individual components for adverse impact , or to validate such individual components , and will not take enforcement action based upon adverse impact of any component of that process , including the separate parts of a multipart selection procedure or any separate procedure that is used as an alternative method of selection .” 65 Effectively negating the holding in Teal that rejected a “ bottom line ” defense and disregarding the Title VII protections are supposed to allow the individual to compete . 66
Validating algorithmic hiring practices using validity studies will prove deeply problematic . Validity studies should be
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