F’book cans ‘discriminatory’ targeting

Facebook will overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit and employment ads as part of a legal settlement.

For the social network, that’s one major legal problem down, several to go, including government investigations in the US and Europe over its data and privacy practices.

The changes to Facebook’s advertising methods — which generate most of the company’s enormous profits — are unprecedented. The social network says it will no longer allow housing, employment or credit ads that tar- get people by age, gender or Zip code.

Facebook will also limit other targeting options so that those ads don’t exclude people on the basis of race, ethnicity and other legally protected categories, including national origin and sexual orientation.

The social media company is also paying about $5 million to cover plaintiffs’ legal fees and other costs.

Facebook and the plaintiffs — a group including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Fair Housing Alliance and others —called the settlement “historic.”

It took 18 months to hammer out. The company still faces an administrative complaint filed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in August over the housing ads issue.

Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU and the group’s lead attorney on its suit, praised the settlement as “sweeping” and said she expects it to have ripple effects through the tech industry.

Facebook agreed to let the groups test its ad systems to ensure they don’t enable discrimination.