A 2013 study (Sweeney, 2013) revealed that Google AdSense (Google’s online algorithmic advertising platform) was more likely to target ads related to having a criminal record to users with a black identifying first name than a white identifying first name. On Reuters.com, a host of Google Adsense, a black-identifying name had a 25% more likely chance to receive an ad suggestive of an arrest record (ibid). The researchers were unable to explain the phenomenon, but the existence of such biased outputs reflects either biased data or biased logic.
