By 2014, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of US prospective employees faced online personality tests before they could even be seen or spoken to by a human being. Personality testing dates back at least to the 1930s, but greater data processing power has massively increased the capacity to integrate such testing and the results it produces into the categorization of actual and potential workers. One estimate suggests there might be as many as seventy-five-million assessment tests administered to potential employees each year in the United States. A form of anticipatory management, personality tests can flag any criterion an employer chooses—for example, candidates who are prone to join a labor union, who display potential markers for mental illness, or who are likely to ask for salary increases or, conversely, remain on the job without asking for a raise.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 228