AI Hiring Firm Eightfold Sued Over Alleged Secret Scoring Of Job Applicants
Two job seekers filed a federal class-action lawsuit against AI hiring platform Eightfold, alleging it secretly uses AI to score job applicants without their knowledge or consent, violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and California's Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act. Eightfold reportedly collects personal information from public sources like LinkedIn and job boards to create “Match Scores” ranking applicants by their likelihood of success, potentially resulting in automatic rejection of lower-ranked candidates before human review. Plaintiffs claim they applied for jobs through Eightfold but were rejected or never interviewed and allege they were not informed about the use of consumer reports or their rights to dispute them. The plaintiffs seek statutory, actual, and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief to change Eightfold’s practices. The lawsuit highlights the widespread use of AI hiring tools at large companies and argues that AI-driven decisions about employment must still comply with existing consumer protection laws.
