Google ads, black names and white names, racial discrimination, and click advertising:Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery

摘要

do online ads suggestive of arrest records appear more often with searches of black-sounding names than white-sounding names? What is a black-sounding name or white-sounding name, anyway? How do you design technology to reason about societal consequences like structural racism? Let's take a scientific dive into online ad delivery to find answers."Have you ever been arrested?" Imagine this question appearing whenever someone enters your name in a search engine. Perhaps you are in competition for an award or a new job, or maybe you are in a position of trust, such as a professor or a volunteer. Perhaps you are dating or engaged in any one of hundreds of circumstances for which someone wants to learn more about you online. Appearing alongside your accomplishments is an advertisement implying you may have a criminal record, whether you actually have one or not. Worse, the ads may not appear for your competitors.