Facebook to make some ads searchable
Job, loan listings among those affected
BOSTON — Facebook says it will make advertisements for U.S. jobs and for loans, financing and credit card offers searchable for all users under a legal settlement designed to eliminate discrimination blamed on its highly customized ad-targeting.
The plan disclosed in an internal report Sunday voluntarily expands on a commitment the social medial giant made in March when it agreed to make its U.S. housing ads searchable by location and advertiser.
Ads were only delivered selectively to Facebook users based on such data as what they earn, their education level and where they shop.
The audit’s leader, former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy, was hired by Facebook in May 2018 to assess its performance on vital social issues.
Murphy has consulted with dozens of civil rights groups on the subject as part of her yearlong audit, assisted by lawyers from the firm Relman, Dane & Colfax. Sunday’s 26-page report, which also deals with content moderation and enforcement and efforts to prevent meddling in the 2020 U.S. elections and census, was her second update.
The searchable housing ads database will roll out by the end of 2019, Facebook says, and Murphy said she expects the employment and financial product offerings databases to be available within the next year.
Murphy said she believes the move will positively impact the social mobility of millions in the United States “so I’m very excited about that.”
Targeted ads tailored to individuals are Facebook’s bread and butter — accounting for all but a sliver of its more than $50 billion in annual revenues last year. It’s unlikely that making the ads searchable would have a significant effect on Facebook’s business. Analysts have cautioned, however, that any restrictions on Facebook’s ability to target ads could scare off advertisers.
The move is likely part of Facebook’s strategy to show regulators that is doing a good job policing its own service — putting it in compliance with existing antidiscrimination law — and doesn’t need a heavy-handed approach from lawmakers. It comes as the company is facing increasing regulatory pressures.
As part of the settlement with plaintiffs including the ACLU and the National Fair Housing Alliance, Facebook agreed in March to stop targeting people based on age, gender and ZIP code and to also eliminate such categories as national origin and sexual orientation.
The groups had sued claiming Facebook violated anti-discrimination laws by preventing audiences including single mothers and the disabled from seeing many housing ads.
Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU and the group’s lead attorney in the case, said making the three Facebook databases searchable by anyone “definitely creates greater access to information about economic opportunities.”
Civil rights groups are concerned that the secretive, proprietary algorithms that govern how the company steers ads could still be discriminatory.