While many people in the world favor transparency, there seems to be a movement pushing for more anonymization. Whether talking about anonymous messaging services like Yik Yak or anonymous sharing services like Secret, companies are clearly taking advantage of this trend and building entire businesses around it.

In the hiring process, candidates are supposed to retain some semblance of privacy. There are multiple defining characteristics that employers are not allowed to ask about, such as religion, sexual preference, and political beliefs. Yet just by having an applicant’s name, an employer is able to find that candidate on Facebook or any other similar social network, likely giving them access to a whole world of knowledge to which they should really not be privvy.

Putting one’s name on a resume, especially in this world of easily-accessible information, can therefore cause problems. Not only can employers find out information they have no business knowing, but names themselves are subject to biases from hiring managers.

This was demonstrated nowhere more clearly than a National Bureau of Economic Research study, which found that “white-sounding” names receive 50% more callbacks for interviews than “African-American-sounding” names. It was found in the same study that race affects the benefits that a more impressive resume yields. For “white names,” a high quality resume elicited 30% more callbacks, while resumes with “African-American names” elicited a much smaller increase.

Names were not the only source of information that skewed callback statistics on resumes. Applicants living in better neighborhoods also received more interviews than those who listed their address in areas considered worse. Men were also hired more often when resumes were not equal and the woman was more qualified.

Clearly, providing too much information such as name and address can either offer an unfair advantage or work against an applicant, depending on what their name is and where they live. So how can the application process be altered to be more inclusive and less biased? The answer lies in blind applications. By wiping all personal information from a resume, an applicant puts himself on equal footing with every other person who has applied to the job.

Blind applications have been proven successful in the music field for over forty years. Since the 1970s, orchestras have been using blind auditions to diversify their musicians. The success of this strategy becomes clear when looking at the numbers. In 1970, the top five orchestras in the United States had less than 5% women. In 1980, 10% of the musicians were female. By 1997, that figure was 25%. Additionally, even when the blind audition strategy is used only in the preliminary round, it becomes 50% more likely that a woman will advance to the finals.

So should companies employ this method in their application processes? My vote would be “yes.” Biases related to race or socioeconomic positioning could be mitigated, and it would create a more equal playing field for the applicants. Jobseekers should be judged solely on their skillsets, not their race, religion, or other personal information that can be found on the average Facebook page.