[Infowarrior] - Facebook targets ‘insecure’ young people

[Richard Forno]

Facebook targets ‘insecure’ young people


A 23-page Facebook document seen by The Australian outlines how the social network can target ‘moments when young people need a confidence boost’ in pinpoint detail.

	• The Australian
	• 12:00AM May 1, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/digital/facebook-targets-insecure-young-people-to-sell-ads/news-story/a89949ad016eee7d7a61c3c30c909fa6

Facebook is using sophisticated algorithms to identify and exploit Australians as young as 14, by allowing advertisers to target them at their most vulnerable, including when they feel “worthless” and “insecure”, secret internal documents ­reveal.

A 23-page Facebook document seen by The Australian marked “Confidential: Internal Only” and dated 2017, outlines how the social network can target “moments when young people need a confidence boost” in pinpoint detail.

By monitoring posts, pictures, interactions and internet activity in real-time, Facebook can work out when young people feel “stressed”, “defeated”, “overwhelmed”, “anxious”, “nervous”, “stupid”, “silly”, “useless”, and a “failure”, the document states.

After being contacted by The Australian, Facebook issued an apology, and said it had opened an investigation, admitting it was wrong to target young children in this way.

“We have opened an investigation to understand the process failure and improve our oversight. We will undertake disciplinary and other processes as appropriate,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement sent to The Australian at the weekend.

Rumours about Facebook’s advertising sales methods have percolated in media circles for several years, but until now there has been no hard evidence, nor any suggestion they go to such considerable lengths to commercialise their youngest users.

In a move that raises profound ethical questions about Facebook’s use of covert surveillance, the document lays out how the world’s biggest social network is gathering psychological insights on 6.4 million “high schoolers”, “tertiary students”, and “young Australians and New Zealanders … in the workforce” to sell targeted advertising.

A presentation prepared for one of Australia’s top four banks shows how the $US415 billion advertising-driven giant has built a database of Facebook users that is made up of 1.9 million high schoolers with an average age of 16, 1.5 million tertiary students averaging 21 years old, and 3 million young workers averaging 26 years old.

Detailed information on mood shifts among young people is “based on internal Facebook data”, the document states, “shareable under non-disclosure agreement only”, and “is not publicly available”.

The document was prepared by two of Facebook’s top Australian executives, David Fernandez and Andy Sinn, and includes information on when young people exhibit “nervous ­excitement”, and emotions related to “conquering fears”.

The tactics appear to breach the Australian Code for Advertising & Marketing Communications to Children guidelines which seeks to maintain a high sense of social responsibility.

The code defines a child as a person 14 years old or younger, and states a “child must obtain a parent or guardian’s express consent prior to engaging in any activity that will result in the collection or disclosure of … personal information.”

Personal information is described as “information that identifies the child or could identify the child”.

The revelations cast new light on how Facebook harvests and uses the extraordinary amounts of data that it gathers on the Australian population to figure out what people are doing and thinking.

The document claims that Facebook is not only able to detect sentiment, but it can also understand how emotions are communicated at different points during a young person’s week.

“Anticipatory emotions are more likely to be expressed early in the week, while reflective emotions increase on the weekend,” the document discloses. “Monday-Thursday is about building confidence; the weekend is for broadcasting achievements.”

Granular information available to advertisers includes a young person’s relationship status, location, number of Facebook friends they have and how often they access the platform via mobile or desktop. Other moments in young people’s lives Facebook is seeking to sell ads against are associated with “looking good and body confidence”, and “working out & losing weight”.

Facebook is also able to reap information on how users are “representing emotion and communicating visually”.

For example, using image recognition tools, advertisers can see how people visually represent moments such as meal times on the company’s platforms including Instagram, the photo-sharing site that Facebook owns.

Because Facebook rolls out ad products on a regional and global basis, the company could be targeting young children around the world with these methods.

In its statement to The Australian, Facebook refused to disclose if the practice exists elsewhere, and claims “we care deeply about the people who use our services” and “understand the importance of ensuring their safety and wellbeing”.

It adds: “While the data on which this research is based was aggregated and presented consistent with applicable privacy and legal protections, including the removal of any personally identifiable information, our internal process sets a standard higher than required by law.

‘‘Facebook only permits research following a rigorous procedure of review whenever sensitive data, particularly data involving young people or their emotional behaviour, is involved.

“This research does not appear to have followed this process.”

The engine that drives Facebook’s opaque ad sales system is built on algorithms — sets of complex instructions that Facebook’s engineers use to mine personal information about the preferences of a worldwide  audience of 1.86 billion users.

Exactly how the ad sales system work is a closely guarded commercial secret.

News of the questionable sales tactics is the latest in a series of articles by The Australian about Facebook.

Last week, this newspaper reported how Facebook is offering rebates to media agencies based on how many staff they employ, and sweetens ad deals with an all-expenses-paid trip to its US headquarters, where founder  Mark Zuckerberg is based.

Rebates are common in the media industry. But evidence of their existence raises important questions about whether ad buyers are given incentives to direct client spend to Facebook regardless of whether such purchases are in an advertiser’s best interest.

The Australian also reported that Facebook’s ad metrics were over-estimated by 500 per cent, far more than previously thought

The Australian revealed that the business had parted company with Australian managing director Stephen Scheeler in February with immediate effect.

Former Fairfax Media sales boss and current Yahoo7 chief executive Ed Harrison is said to be the front runner for his job.

Mr Harrison will have a big rebranding job on his hands if appointed. Australia is the only Facebook market in the world to experience slowing ad growth.