Technology
Study Reveals Racial Bias in Educational Ads on Facebook
A 2024 research paper suggests that Facebook’s promoting algorithm has disparately targeted for-profit college ads to Black users.
Meta, the present parent company of each Facebook and Instagram, didn’t explain why billions of users may even see certain posts that others haven’t seen. However, a gaggle of academics from Princeton and the University of Southern California took matters into their very own hands, reported.
The group bought ads from Facebook and tracked their performance amongst real Facebook users, revealing “evidence of racial discrimination in Meta’s algorithmic delivery of ads offering educational opportunities, raising legal and ethical concerns.”
The study targeted for-profit colleges akin to DeVry and Grand Canyon University, especially since each schools were on the Department of Education’s list of those fined or sued for promoting fraud.
According to researchers, for-profit colleges have a “long, demonstrable history of defrauding prospective students” by targeting students of color through predatory marketing “while providing poor academic performance and lower career prospects” in comparison with other college institutions.
To conduct the study, the group purchased sets of two linked advertisements. Therefore, one campaign would goal a public institution akin to Colorado State University and the opposite would focus on a for-profit company akin to Strayer University, which, in line with the report, was not involved in the project.
While advertisers can customize Facebook campaigns through a variety of targeting options, akin to age and site, race isn’t any longer an option you’ll be able to select when preparing to advertise on the social media network. But researchers found a workaround by utilizing North Carolina voter registration data, which incorporates a person’s race.
Using this strategy, the researchers were capable of construct a sample audience that was 50% black and 50% white. Black speakers got here from one region of North Carolina and white voters got here from one other a part of the state.
Using Facebook’s “custom audiences” feature, researchers were capable of upload an inventory of specific people to whom ads were targeted. While the race of the users who viewed the ads was not revealed, the placement where each ad was displayed was allegedly revealed.
“Whenever our ad is shown in Raleigh, we can infer that it was shown to a black person, and when it is shown in Charlotte, we can infer that it was shown to a white person,” the paper said.
If the algorithm in query were truly unbiased, it could display ads for every school equal to the variety of black and white users. However, the experiment revealed bias, as Facebook’s algorithm allegedly “disproportionately showed black users ads for colleges like DeVry and Grand Canyon University.”
Conversely, more white users saw ads targeting public universities, .
“Ensuring fairness in advertising is an industry-wide challenge, which is why we are working with civil rights organizations, academics and regulators to ensure fairness in our advertising system,” said Meta spokesman Daniel Roberts.
“Our advertising standards do not allow advertisers to display ads that discriminate against individuals or groups of people based on personal characteristics such as race, so we are actively working on technology to make additional progress in this area.”
In 2016, a ProPublica report revealed that Facebook allows advertisers to “explicitly exclude users from ad campaigns based on their race.”
The company has since removed options that allowed marketers to focus on users by race. However, even when the above-mentioned for-profit programs improved their marketing efforts and “aimed for racially balanced ad targeting,” a team of researchers from Princeton and USC found that “Meta’s algorithms would reproduce historical racial disparities in who sees ads , and do it without the advertisers’ knowledge.”
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Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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