Industry leader advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion in the ecommerce fraud prevention conversation
MIAMI, July 19, 2022 — Global ecommerce fraud protection leader ClearSale (www.clear.sale.com) is pleased to announce its new internal initiative to make ecommerce fraud prevention terms more inclusive. The company, whose 1,500-plus employees protect over 5,000 companies in more than 160 countries, knows that providing the most inclusive and equitable fraud prevention services possible requires adopting alternatives to traditional but implicitly biased industry references.
“As the industry leader in our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, ClearSale aims to shift the tone of the conversation away from outdated terms that perpetuate stereotypes,” said Yasmine Brasco, ClearSale Data Scientist and DEI Committee Member. “This is the right thing to do ethically and from a business perspective. The data from employment websites and academic research shows that diversity, equity, and inclusion matter for talent recruitment, employee retention, and innovation. Inclusion starts with the language we choose to use.”
Between 76% and 86% of employees and job seekers say DEI is an important consideration when they’re looking at potential employers and weighing offers, according to data from job websites such as Glassdoor and Monster. Diverse companies outperform other competitors, according to a classic Center for Talent Innovation study, which found a 45% higher likelihood of market share growth and a 70% higher likelihood of new market captures among diverse organizations.
“Terms like ‘whitelist’ and ‘blacklist’ imply positive and negative attributes, respectively, and we don’t want to reinforce those implicit associations,” said Carla Oliveira, ClearSale Product Owner and DEI Committee Member. “Instead, we’re now using ‘allow list’ and ‘deny list’ internally and in our conversations with clients and partners, to lead by example.”
“ClearSale doesn’t recommend using fraud-control lists because lists are ineffective compared to modern solutions and they can generate false declines,” Oliveira added. “However, these types of lists are part of the industry vocabulary that we’d like to reframe.”
ClearSale’s new internal language guidelines replace other dated and biased references as well:
- “Ethical hacking” and “unethical hacking” replace the terms “white hat hacking” and “black hat hacking,” respectively.
- “Illegal market” replaces “black market.”
- “Extortion,” “intimidation” or “bribery” replace “blackmail.”
- “Block” or “ban” replaces “blackballed.”
- “Wrongdoing” replaces “black mark.”
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When referring to servers or computers, “primary” replaces “master” and “replica” or “secondary” replaces “slave.”