Facebook Takes Steps to Keep Targeted Advertising From Violating Its Users鈥� Civil Rights
Last spring, when we that Facebook was providing advertisers with the option to show different ads to different users based on their 鈥渆thnic affinity,鈥� we got nervous.
Facebook places people into these clusters 鈥� African-American, Asian-American, and Latino 鈥� based on the fact that they鈥檝e liked things on Facebook associated with membership in those groups, like an African-American chamber of commerce. (You can figure out how Facebook labels you .) We were worried that advertisers who wanted to hide their ads from members of these groups could do that. Conversely, we were also worried that advertisers who wanted to target them in predatory ways could do that, too.
Discriminatory targeting is illegal when those ads are for housing, credit, and employment. Because those areas are so central to opportunity, civil rights law creates special protections to ensure fairness. Title VII makes it illegal to recruit employees in a way that excludes Black or Latino candidates (or women or Muslims) from the applicant pool. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to advertise an apartment for rent in a way that keeps members of these groups from knowing that it鈥檚 available. And it鈥檚 similarly illegal to keep people from applying for credit by denying them information under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. (We鈥檝e laid out more detail on the law in comment letters to the FTC and the EEOC).
Personalized advertising online can discriminate without users ever knowing it.
Until now, though, Facebook didn鈥檛 treat ads in these areas any differently from other ads. Advertisers could choose to target an ad to 鈥渉ouse hunters鈥� and to exclude 鈥淎frican Americans鈥� from seeing that ad, as recently pointed out. Today, though, Facebook that it will no longer allow discriminatory targeting (or exclusion) based on ethnic affinity for ads for housing, credit, and employment.
Perhaps equally important, part of that process will involve developing systems to identify ads in those areas. If successful, Facebook can work on figuring out how to keep advertisers from discriminating based on gender or sexual orientation or religion or any other protected status. Facebook also announced that it will update its advertising policies to make the prohibition on discriminatory targeting more explicit and will work to educate advertisers on their obligations when placing ads for housing, credit, or employment.
These are big steps in the right direction, and we鈥檙e glad to see that our conversations, along with lots of other advocacy, have helped Facebook recognize the important role it plays in protecting equal opportunity in the era of personalized online advertising. We hope that other advertising platforms will take notice and think about how to structure their own interfaces and policies so that targeting tools can鈥檛 become tools for discrimination in these key areas of economic opportunity. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with Facebook and working towards protecting users from discriminatory targeting based not only on race, but also on gender and sexual orientation and religion. We are also looking forward to working out how to allow advertisers to use targeted advertising to increase diversity in workplaces or communities, while still barring discrimination.
There is a long and sorry history in this country of housing ads that proclaimed they were for 鈥渨hites only鈥� and of classified sections in newspapers that separated 鈥淛obs for Men鈥� and 鈥淛obs for Women鈥� into different columns. Personalized advertising online can accomplish the same discrimination, without users ever knowing. How could I learn that I didn鈥檛 see a particular job ad because I鈥檓 a woman or that I saw different housing ads because I鈥檓 white?
This hiddenness gives advertising platforms great power. They must use it responsibly.
