SAN FRANCISCO: A lawsuit filed on Thursday accuses Facebook of letting ad targeting tools be used to exclude women and older people from offers regarding loans, investments and other financial services.
Two law firms have filed a discrimination suit in San Francisco federal court on behalf of a 54-year-old woman living in Washington and will ask a judge to grant the case class-action status.
“Women and older persons are entitled to full and equal services of businesses such as Facebook, and the financial services companies that advertise on Facebook’s platform,” attorney Matthew Handley said in a statement.
“Purposeful targeting of advertisements away from these members of our community unlawfully denies them these guarantees.”
The suit contends that women and older people were denied the benefits of ads for financial services because Facebook tools allow messages to be targeted at specific age ranges or genders.
Facebook said it is reviewing the complaint.
“We’ve made significant changes to how housing, employment and credit opportunities are run on Facebook and continue to work on ways to prevent potential misuse,” a spokeswoman for the leading social network told AFP.
“Our policies have long prohibited discrimination and we’re proud of the strides we’re making in this area.”
Facebook announced earlier this year that it was revamping how it uses targeted advertising in a settlement with activist groups alleging it discriminated in messages on jobs, housing, credit and other services.
Under those changes, housing, employment or credit ads would no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code — a practice critics argued had led to discrimination.
In the settlement, Facebook agreed to take “far-reaching measures to stop advertisers from using age, gender, and other protected traits to target job, housing, and credit ads,” according to the law firms involved in the new suit.
“Today’s lawsuit alleges that Facebook has not taken any action to stop advertisers from excluding older persons and women from getting financial services ads on Facebook, other than in the limited area of credit ads,” the law firms said.
Lawsuit accuses Facebook ad targeting of abetting bias
Lawsuit accuses Facebook ad targeting of abetting bias
- Suit contends that Facebook tools allow messages to be targeted at specific age ranges or genders
- As a result, women and older people were denied the benefits of ads for financial services, it adds
Apple, Google offer app store changes under new UK rules
LONDON: Apple and Google have pledged changes to ensure fairness in their app stores, the UK competition watchdog said Tuesday, describing it as “first steps” under its tougher regulation of technology giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority placed the two companies under “strategic market status” last year, giving it powers to impose stricter rules on their mobile platforms.
Apple and Google have submitted packages of commitments to improve fairness and transparency in their app stores, which the CMA is now consulting market participants on.
The proposals cover data collection, how apps are reviewed and ranked and improved access to their mobile operating systems.
They aim to prevent Apple and Google from giving priority to their own apps and to ensure businesses receive fairer terms for delivering apps to customers, including better access to tools to compete with services like the Apple digital wallet.
“These are important first steps while we continue to work on a broad range of additional measures to improve Apple and Google’s app store services in the UK,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.
The commitments mark the first changes proposed by US tech giants in response to the UK’s digital markets regulation, which came into force last year.
The UK framework is similar to a tech competition law from the European Union, the Digital Markets Act, which carries the potential for hefty financial penalties.
“The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue advancing important privacy and security innovations for users and great opportunities for developers,” an Apple spokesperson said.
The CMA in October found that Apple and Google held an “effective duopoly,” with around 90 to 100 percent of UK mobile services running on their platforms.
A Google spokesperson said existing practices in its Play online store are “fair, objective and transparent.”
“We welcome the opportunity to resolve the CMA’s concerns collaboratively,” they added.
The changes are set to take effect in April, subject to the outcome of a market consultation.
