I've never really understood how targeted ads, aside from things like job or housing opportunities, would be considered harmful discriminatory. Yes it's
discrimination in the basic sense of the word - the same way that my company discriminates between men and women in our work experience surveys so that we can see any differences in trends.
If I'm selling high heeled shoes, why should I not be able to target my ads to women? If I'm trying to solicit support for, say, a charity focused on helping South American immigrants why should I not be able to target Latin immigrants if I have a belief that they will be more invested and likely to follow up? If I built a new church why shouldn't I be able to advertise to Christians?
Certainly, using such categories for job and housing advertisements should not be allowed. But if I'm reading Facebook's announcement correctly targeting on race and gender is being completely removed [1]. I'd make more sense for me to just forbid it for jobs and housing. If that's too difficult, explicitly limit it to selling people consumer goods like shoes, concert tickets, and video games.
1. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/keeping-advertising-s...
If I'm selling high heeled shoes, why should I not be able to target my ads to women? If I'm trying to solicit support for, say, a charity focused on helping South American immigrants why should I not be able to target Latin immigrants if I have a belief that they will be more invested and likely to follow up? If I built a new church why shouldn't I be able to advertise to Christians?
Certainly, using such categories for job and housing advertisements should not be allowed. But if I'm reading Facebook's announcement correctly targeting on race and gender is being completely removed [1]. I'd make more sense for me to just forbid it for jobs and housing. If that's too difficult, explicitly limit it to selling people consumer goods like shoes, concert tickets, and video games.
1. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/keeping-advertising-s...