Apple Inc co-founder Steve Wozniak joined in the online debate over accusations of gender discrimination by the algorithm behind the iPhone maker’s credit card, fueling scrutiny of the newly launched Apple Card.
The criticism started on Thursday, after entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson railed against the Apple Card in a series of Twitter posts, saying it gave him 20 times the credit limit his wife received.
In an email, Goldman said Apple Card applicants were evaluated independently, according to income and creditworthiness, taking into account factors such as personal credit scores and personal debt. It was possible for two family members to receive significantly different credit decisions, the bank said, but added, “We have not, and will not, make decisions based on factors like gender.”
Hansson, who is the creator of web-application framework Ruby on Rails, did not disclose any specific income-related information for himself or his wife but tweeted that they filed joint tax returns and that his wife had a better credit score. On Saturday, Wozniak chimed in with a similar experience, saying he got 10 times more credit on the card, compared with his wife.
The same thing happened to us. I got 10x the credit limit. We have no separate bank or credit card accounts or any separate assets. Hard to get to a human for a correction though. It's big tech in 2019.
— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) November 10, 2019
MacDailyNews Take: There could be other factors going into the decision than just gender. Individual income, for example.
If it is something wrong in the the black box that can be repeated along gender lines, then along with Goldman Sachs, Apple, of course, will have to share in the blame for whatever’s going on in the black box that only the black box seems to know.