Facebook Ad-Targeting Violates California Law, Here’s What it Does Against Users

Massive changes may be coming to Facebook in its future outing, particularly as it has been found that its ad-targeting technology has violated a California law against its citizens. It was said in a ruling that its ad-targeting system targets the likes of age, gender, and more categories that go against the state's anti-discrimination law.

The case was three years in the making, with it seeing a success last month, after claims of discrimination of the platform to her search, being a class-action suit.

Facebook Ad-Targeting Violated California Law

A court ruling from last month found Facebook violating California's state law against anti-discrimination, centering on the platform's ad-targeting system. This centers on the class action lawsuit that Samantha Liapes, 48, filed against Facebook in 2020, claiming that it has discriminated against her experience on the platform when shopping for life insurance.

As per Liapes, Facebook requires advertisers to choose the demography of its users who would receive said ads, discriminating against age and gender in showing results. It was also added that Facebook instructed its ad partners not to send these advertisements to older people and women.

Furthermore, Facebook intentionally excludes older people and women from seeing selected ads, and in her case, life insurance ads on the platform.

Facebook Ads are Discriminatory says Suit

Ars Technica reported that the recent proceedings found this system to be discriminatory, and this could soon pave the way for an overhaul of Facebook's ad system. According to the court ruling "By excluding women and older people from ads, men and younger people obtained an advantage in the limited opportunities for securing insurance policies."

Meta's Advertisement Operations

Among the many big tech which rely on ads for revenue, centering on a targeting system that will refine what appears on their News Feeds, Meta made a name for itself in these operations. Facebook and Instagram are infamous for their ad targeting systems, taking user's personal and browsing information to account for their ads.

Last month, California judges changed their ruling on Facebook and Meta's ad operations, stating that they can be sued for their actions despite initially seeing immunity from it.

Moreover, there was a massive move against Facebook's ads, with the FCA blocking these earlier this year as scams are growing in numbers on the platform.

Meta's massive reliance on ads has seen its ups and downs from before, but this latest class-action lawsuit may soon lead them to a settlement and a massive overhaul of their current operations. The current complaints against Facebook's ads may soon see a turnout, with the court now in favor of the lawsuit against its ad-targeting system.