Facebook accused of Ad targeting bias against women, hit with lawsuit

A lawsuit filed on Thursday accuses Facebook of letting ad targeting tools be used to exclude women and older people from offers regarding loans, investments and or financial services.

Two law firms have filed a discrimination suit in San Francisco federal court on behalf of a 54-year-old woman living in Washington and will ask a judge to grant case class-action status.

"Women and older persons are entitled to full and equal services of businesses such as Facebook, and financial services companies that advertise on Facebook's platform," attorney Matw Handley said in a statement.

"Purposeful targeting of advertisements away from se members of our community unlawfully denies m se guarantees." suit contends that women and older people were denied benefits of ads for financial services because Facebook tools allow messs to be targeted at specific ranges or s.

Facebook said it is reviewing complaint.

"We've made significant changes to how housing, employment and credit opportunities are run on Facebook and continue to work on ways to prevent potential misuse," a spokeswoman for leading social network told AFP.

"Our policies have long prohibited discrimination and we're proud of strides we're making in this area." Facebook anunced earlier this year that it was revamping how it uses targeted advertising in a settlement with activist groups alleging it discriminated in messs on jobs, housing, credit and or services.

Under those changes, housing, employment or credit ads would longer be allowed to target by , or zip code -- a practice critics argued had led to discrimination.

In settlement, Facebook agreed to take "far-reaching measures to stop advertisers from using , , and or protected traits to target job, housing, and credit ads," according to law firms involved in new suit.

"Today's lawsuit alleges that Facebook has t taken any action to stop advertisers from excluding older persons and women from getting financial services ads on Facebook, or than in limited area of credit ads," law firms said.

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