US regulators have opened a probe into the algorithm used to determine the credit worthiness of Apple Card applicants after a man took to Twitter to call it "sexist" for giving him a credit limit 20 times higher than his wife's.
On Friday, David Heinemeier Hansson, a prominent technology entrepreneur, complained to his 355,000 Twitter followers that the Apple Card is "such a fucking sexist program" because its "black box algorithm thinks I deserve 20x the credit limit she [his wife] does".
The Twitter vent, in which Hansson revealed that his wife has a better credit score than him, quickly went viral, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak among those chipping in to report similar issues.
By Saturday, regulators were involved with New York State Department of Financial Services superintendent Linda Lacewell tweeting that "financial services companies are responsible for ensuring the algorithms they use do not even unintentionally discriminate against protected groups. @NYDFS will take a look."
Goldman Sachs, which issues the Apple Card, says in a statement: "Our credit decisions are based on a customer's creditworthiness and not on factors like gender, race, age, sexual orientation or any other basis prohibited by law."
Meanwhile, one couple has carried out an experiment, both applying for an Apple Card, with the wife offered a higher limit and lower APR: