Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

propublica.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 808 posts

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#81

Post by rcthompson »

avar wrote: post #53
eanzenberg wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because the filtering is too powerful and accurate? Anyone can get up at 6am to listen to the radio. If you don't show certain people job ads they may never see or know about the listing.

Anyone can create multiple Facebook profiles of various ages and look at job advertisements, which is both cheaper than subscribing to a bunch of newspapers, and less of a hassle than having to get up at 6 am (in the days before people could easily record the radio).

Age isn't the only filtering criterion, though. Do I need to create a fake account for every combination of age, gender, read, socioeconomic status, etc. if I want to look at all the job ads?

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#82

Post by alasdair_ »

Does this mean that using Facebook to target tech company ads at women or an unrepresented minority group, or LGBT people would also be illegal, even if the goal is to reach out to these people to increase the diversity of the workplace?

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#83

Post by jklinger410 »

keltex wrote: post #70
thecompilr wrote: post #63

I think that is perfectly legal, ethical and acceptable. Those companies pay per impression, so they want to maximize the effect of the ad, and reach as many candidates as possible per each $ they pay FB. This is just an ad. No one can stop you from applying to a job directly with the company, irregardless of your age, or any other demographics. Just another sensational headline.

Actually it might be illegal. Read below regarding recruitment. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/ Recruitment It is also illegal for an employer to recruit new employees in a way that discriminates against them because of their race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. For example, an employer's…

This has to be one of the more under-enforced rules in America.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#84

Post by notzuck »

avar wrote: post #53
eanzenberg wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because the filtering is too powerful and accurate? Anyone can get up at 6am to listen to the radio. If you don't show certain people job ads they may never see or know about the listing.

Anyone can create multiple Facebook profiles of various ages and look at job advertisements, which is both cheaper than subscribing to a bunch of newspapers, and less of a hassle than having to get up at 6 am (in the days before people could easily record the radio).

Downvoted and rightly so.

Do you think purchasing a few newspapers from the store in the morning is the same thing as having to register multiple accounts on FB just to avoid their age discrimination which you may not be aware is happening in the first place? This also violates their terms of service.

How many accounts do I need: one white, one black, one hispanic, one 20 - 30, one 30 - 40?? where does it end?

It's unethical developers like you that allows this kind of thing to happen.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#85

Post by mulmen »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #34

It's anecdata, but if I ask my teen daughter, Facebook is for older people, and the kids are all using things that I've never even heard of. So not sure how you can really prove discrimination. There is some demographic skewing if you advertise on Facebook vs. other channels, but not sure you can really call it an age issue. Not sure what to make of the social marketing guy in the article -- seems like if you are loo…

Facebook knows the age of the people it displays ads to. Part of their value proposition is that you can use this data to show certain ads to people of a certain age. In the case of job postings this is explicitly illegal discrimination. The average age of Facebook users is completely unrelated.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#86

Post by ubernostrum »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #34

It's anecdata, but if I ask my teen daughter, Facebook is for older people, and the kids are all using things that I've never even heard of. So not sure how you can really prove discrimination. There is some demographic skewing if you advertise on Facebook vs. other channels, but not sure you can really call it an age issue. Not sure what to make of the social marketing guy in the article -- seems like if you are loo…

So not sure how you can really prove discrimination.

"The platform offered them a set of checkboxes, some of which let them do things which are illegal to do in an ad. They clicked the checkboxes that do the illegal things."

That's how you prove it.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#87

Post by conanbatt »

tmh79 wrote: post #11
conanbatt wrote: post #4

Meh, is it really important. There are many reasons to want younger workers, and there are many reasons you shouldn't want younger workers. I don't find it necessary for the government to step in to help one of the highest paid fields in america.

It is a violation of very important civil rights laws in the US. Imagine a company using Facebook to advertise job openings to white candidates only.

Or to advertise to get large chested women to serve beer!

Its just a preference. If they are making an unprofitable preference, the best punishment you can do is let them continue their policy and let other competition pick up where they leave money on the table. If the decision they are making is profitable, no amount of law will help against the desires of people.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#88

Post by alasdair_ »

danso wrote: post #39
loeg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But curiously, not illegal to discriminate against people under 40 on the basis of age (at least, under the same Federal statute)[0]. If these job ads were targeted at the 40+ demographic only, they would be totally ok. It's even been to the Supreme Court[1]: > In the 2004 decision General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, the U.S. Supreme Court settled a conflict among the lower courts over the viability of so-c…

I wonder if this one-way protection exists because otherwise it would be legally tenuous to post job ads seeking a minimum number of years of experience (e.g. 10+ years in professional Python development), which basically by definition discriminate against the very young.

I suspect it's more to do with older people voting more.

Re: Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

#90

Post by mulmen »

dictum wrote: post #47
poulsbohemian wrote: post #34

It's anecdata, but if I ask my teen daughter, Facebook is for older people, and the kids are all using things that I've never even heard of. So not sure how you can really prove discrimination. There is some demographic skewing if you advertise on Facebook vs. other channels, but not sure you can really call it an age issue. Not sure what to make of the social marketing guy in the article -- seems like if you are loo…

> It's anecdata, but if I ask my teen daughter, Facebook is for older people, and the kids are all using things that I've never even heard of. So not sure how you can really prove discrimination Aren't they looking for young professionals (twenty-somethings)? Whatever teenagers are using right now will only become relevant to this debate in a few years, when they'll be the ones targeted by those companies* [*] I'm to…

Irrelevant, this is an article about discrimination on Facebook.
Post reply on HN