In this paper we show that the demographic identity of the person shown in an ad influences who Facebook delivers the ad to. For example, using an image of a Black person will result in showing the ad more to Black audiences. Images of children are shown more to women. Images of teenage girls are shown more to middle-aged men. The findings emphasise the power of ad delivery optimization algorithms, the futility of popular approaches (such as removing sensitive targeting features), and raise question around legal implications for such optimization in job, housing, and credit advertising.
Levi Kaplan
Nicole Gerzon
Alan Mislove
Piotr SapiezynskiFigure 3 - Delivery of ads featuring stock images
A) ads with Black people are delivered more to Black users compared to ads showing white people. B, D) Images of older people of both races and genders tend to be delivered more to older users. C) Images of children are shown more to women; images of teenage and adult women are shown more to men.
Figure 4 - Delivery to older users
A) Older men receive many more ads depicting younger women than those showing younger men. B) The effect on older women is weaker and does not extend to images of adult/older men.
Figure 5 - Delivery of ads featuring StyleGAN images
Delivery statistics of ads featuring StyleGAN images, revealing similar trends to those with stock images in Figure 3.
