[ad_1]
Facebook Inc. uses patent software that it could use to create user household profiles by issuing informed assumptions about the number of people living in the household, their relationships, the interests that they have and ## 147 ## 39 they share and on the electronic devices that they use. .
The system would take advantage of the wealth of information that Facebook already has about its users – including their photos, comments, email history, and web browsing activities – and could be used to target ads, depending on the patent application.
"Without this knowledge of the domestic functions of the user, most of the content elements sent to the user are poorly adapted to the user and are probably ignored," says the patent application filed 39 last year and made public Thursday.
The software would analyze images posted on Instagram or Facebook. (Even users who never upload photos can still be tagged in other users' photos.) To help determine if people live in the same home, says the patent application, the software could indicate how often users people are marked on photos, at a time. captions of the photos. The software would not be limited to the use of photos including all members of the household; According to the patent application, images of people and pairs should be taken into account.
The application also states that Facebook could also incorporate "previous messages, status updates, friendships, an email history, a tagging history" and a web browsing history to form a profile. household or family. These profiles, in turn, could be made available to third parties who wish to target "content" according to users.
Facebook declined to comment Friday on the details of the patent application, but said that the patent application does not necessarily mean that it will build or use the software.
"We have often applied for patents for a technology that we have never implemented, and patents should not be seen as an indication of future projects," said a Facebook representative in a statement.
Menlo Park, California, which fought this year to maintain public confidence in the security of its platform, this month launched a device that will help it gather more People living in their homes called Portal, which has -speaker works and is optimized for video chat.
Previously, Facebook used third-party data brokers, such as Acxiom and Experian, to offer ad targeting based on user family composition, income levels, and other data. This practice was, however, halted in March, after the revelation that another third-party company, Cambridge Analytica, may have violated Facebook's policy by sharing and storing Facebook user data.
Security problems continued. This fall, Facebook revealed a violation that affected 29 million user accounts. Hackers accessed user information including their name, gender, language, relationship status, religion, birthday, friend lists, timeline messages, and recent conversation titles.
It is now feared that the level of predictive analysis proposed in the patent application will introduce additional problems in this direction.
"This is what I would call a classic case of secondary use," said Pam Dixon, Founder and Executive Director of the World Privacy Forum. "Someone signs up on Facebook, or even on Instagram, to post photos or maybe stay in touch with old college friends. I do not think people are going to ask Facebook to map their relational contours, to map them and to use them for unexpected purposes. "
Based on the profile of a household of seven children, Facebook could make economic deductions, for example, Dixon said. She also said that the use of artificial intelligence to analyze images of a family might draw false conclusions based on ethnicity or gender.
"Today, Facebook allows users to target their ads based on information already available about you. It's just based on facts, "said Dixon. "But with that (proposed system), it's the traditional predictive analytics of the data broker. It places people in categories based on Facebook's identity. This is where we enter the realm of injustice, potential prejudice and discrimination. "
PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194):
Copyright 2018 Tribune Content Agency.
[ad_2]
Source link
