Warren slams Goldman's response to Apple Card gender bias accusations
She wants the company to either reveal details about the credit-limit algorithm or pull it down.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren fired back at Goldman Sachs' response to allegations of gender bias against women applying for the popular Apple Card, suggesting the company needs to either reveal details about the credit-limit algorithm or pull it down.
Goldman, which oversees the banking decisions on the iPhone maker's credit card, responded to allegations of discrimination against women by the Apple Card by suggesting that customers who received lower-than-expected credit limits to request a second look at the decision.
"Yeah, great. So let’s just tell every woman in America, 'You might have been discriminated against, on an unknown algorithm, it's on you to telephone Goldman Sachs and tell them to straighten it out,'" Warren told Bloomberg News. "Sorry guys, that's not how it works."
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Gender bias allegations surfaced last week when tech entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson tweeted that he was offered 20 times the credit limit as his wife, even though the couple shares assets and she has a higher credit score. The bank has denied the accusations. Goldman did not immediately respond to a FOX Business request for comment.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks in a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by CNN/New York Times at Otterbein University, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in Westerville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The Massachusetts senator, a frequent critic of Wall Street and a fierce consumer advocate, went on to say that while credit-limit decisions might be made by an algorithm, the system may still be flawed and ingrained with different biases.
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"We're all beginning to understand better that algorithms are only as good as the data that gets packed into them," Warren said. "And if a lot of discriminatory data gets packed in, in other words, if that's how the world works, and the algorithm is doing nothing but sucking out information about how the world works, then the discrimination is perpetuated."
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On Wednesday, the firm said it will introduce the ability for members of the same household to share an Apple Credit line, Bloomberg reported, potentially quelling one of the main issues, which allowed family members to get significantly different credit lines.
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