Productionized Fairness Measurement Under Privacy Constraints

Fairness measurements in the form of disaggregated evaluations often rely on demographic signals that are legally constrained or culturally sensitive. Race and ethnicity signals are among the more difficult signals to curate and use for this task. This paper presents Privacy-Preserving Probabilistic Race/Ethnicity Estimation (PPRE) as a method for enabling fairness measurements with respect to race/ethnicity for U.S.\ LinkedIn members in a privacy-preserving manner. PPRE applies privacy technologies (specifically: secure two-party computation, differential privacy, and additive homomorphic encryption) on top of two race/ethnicity demographic signal sources (the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding estimator and a sparse golden survey set of self-reported demographics) to power a fairness measurement solution with respect to US-based race/ethnicity demographics. We detail its privacy guarantees and demonstrate its application on candidate- and viewer-side fairness measurements. We close with a transferable framework for institutions seeking to implement similar privacy-preserving measurement infrastructure.

Privacy-Preserving Race/Ethnicity Estimation for Algorithmic Bias Measurement in the U.S

AI fairness measurements, including tests for equal treatment, often take the form of disaggregated evaluations of AI systems. Such measurements are an important part of Responsible AI operations. These measurements compare system performance across demographic groups or sub-populations and typically require member-level demographic signals such as gender, race, ethnicity, and location. However, sensitive member-level demographic attributes like race and ethnicity can be challenging to obtain and use due to platform choices, legal constraints, and cultural norms. In this paper, we focus on the task of enabling AI fairness measurements on race/ethnicity for \emph{U.S. LinkedIn members} in a privacy-preserving manner. We present the Privacy-Preserving Probabilistic Race/Ethnicity Estimation (PPRE) method for performing this task. PPRE combines the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) model, a sparse LinkedIn survey sample of self-reported demographics, and privacy-enhancing technologies like secure two-party computation and differential privacy to enable meaningful fairness measurements while preserving member privacy. We provide details of the PPRE method and its privacy guarantees. We then illustrate sample measurement operations. We conclude with a review of open research and engineering challenges for expanding our privacy-preserving fairness measurement capabilities.