Proxy discrimination
The reproduction of a protected variable's effect by a model that reconstructs it from its correlates, with no intent to discriminate.
Proxy discrimination is the mechanism by which a model deprived of a protected characteristic, but fed thousands of other variables, reconstructs its effect from its correlates. No intent is needed: the model's function is precisely to find any predictive correlation, and the protected characteristic is one. Anti-discrimination law built on lists of prohibited variables becomes obsolete, because forbidding a variable does not forbid its effect. The only remedy is to regulate outputs rather than inputs, testing for disparate impact even on a facially neutral model, which runs into an impossibility: measuring what may not be collected.
A model deprived of a protected variable but fed thousands of others reconstructs the missing variable's effect from its correlates, without seeking to discriminate.
proxy discrimination, discrimination by proxy, indirect discrimination
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