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Facebook's Ad Tools Labeled Thousands of Users as ‘Interested’ in Treason

posted by mrpg on Thursday July 12 2018, @08:10AM   
from the but-are-they-or-not dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Facebook is apologizing after its algorithms tagged 65,000 Russian users as "interested in treason." Facebook algorithmically tags users based on their behavior, making it easier for advertisers to target people interested in specific topics. In this case, however, the tag "treason" may have put users under the threat of government intervention. Facebook says it has since removed the interest category.

[...] Automated profiling is useful when you're an orange juice vendor looking for people who say they like orange juice, but a landmark 2016 report from ProPublica found that many of the interests Facebook links to users aren't self-selected. Facebook records your behavior, then makes inferences on who you may be or what you might like, including your race, gender, sexuality, and religion.

[...] Let's be clear: Facebook is an automated profiling machine that synthesizes the enormous amounts of behavior data we create as we click, share, and friend other users. Advertisers can tap into that machine whenever they want, for the right price, and governments can request data. Overall, Facebook hands data over about 75% of the time, according to its 2018 Transparency Report.

Source: Facebook's Ad Tools Labeled Thousands of Users as 'Interested' in Treason

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Original Submission

• Re:source code snippet Re:source code snippet (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @09:37AM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @09:37AM (#706149)

  And string as a boolean?

  Seems wasteful to store a gender field with only 2 possible values as a tinyint

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• Re:source code snippet Re:source code snippet (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @09:53AM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @09:53AM (#706150)

  There are many genders waiting to be discovered, you deplorable shitlord.

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  • Re:source code snippet Re:source code snippet (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @10:07AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @10:07AM (#706154)

    There are many genders waiting to be discovered, you deplorable shitlord.

    "deplorable shitlord" isn't a gender, it's a lifestyle choice and should be stored as a string.

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    • Re:source code snippet Re:source code snippet (Score: 4, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 12 2018, @02:15PM (1 child)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday July 12 2018, @02:15PM (#706204) Journal

      That's a sticky subject that should be stored as a blob.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.

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      • Re:source code snippet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @10:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @10:46PM (#706392)

        A BLOB? What about non-binary people, you insufferably deplorable shitlord?

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