Julia Angwin

Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children

A trove of internal documents sheds light on the algorithms that Facebook’s censors use to differentiate between hate speech and legitimate political expression.

July 03rd, 2017

By Hannes Grassegger and
Julia Angwin

Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children

In the wake of a terrorist attack in London earlier this month, a U.S. congressman wrote a Facebook post in which he called for the slaughter of "radicalized" Muslims. "Hunt them, identify them, and kill them," declared U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican. "Kill them all. For the sake of all that is

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Bias In Criminal Risk Scores Is Mathematically Inevitable, Researchers Say

An analysis of bias against black defendants in criminal risk scores has prompted research showing that the disparity can be addressed — if the algorithms focus on the fairness of outcomes.

December 31st, 2016

By Jeff Larson and
Julia Angwin

Bias In Criminal Risk Scores Is Mathematically Inevitable, Researchers Say

The racial bias that ProPublica found in a formula used by courts and parole boards to forecast future criminal behavior arises inevitably from the test’s design, according to new research. The findings were described in scholarly papers published or circulated over the past several months. Taken together, they represent the most far-reaching

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Facebook Doesn’t Tell You What It Really Knows About You

The site shows users how Facebook categorizes them. It doesn’t reveal the data it is buying about their offline lives.

December 27th, 2016

By Surya Mattu and
Terry Parris Jr and
Julia Angwin

Facebook Doesn’t Tell You What It Really Knows About You

(ANALYSIS) --- Facebook has long let users see all sorts of things the site knows about them, like whether they enjoy soccer, have recently moved, or like Melania Trump. But the tech giant gives users little indication that it buys far more sensitive data about them, including their income, the types of restaurants they frequent

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Facebook Says It Will Stop Allowing Some Advertisers To Exclude Users By Race

Facebook says it will build a system to prevent advertisers from buying credit, housing or employment ads that exclude viewers by race.

November 14th, 2016

By Julia Angwin

Facebook Says It Will Stop Allowing Some Advertisers To Exclude Users By Race

Facing a wave of criticism for allowing advertisers to exclude anyone with an "affinity" for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people from seeing ads, Facebook said it would build an automated system that would let it better spot ads that discriminate

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Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users By Race

Facebook’s system allows advertisers to exclude black, Hispanic, and other “ethnic affinities” from seeing ads.

October 28th, 2016

By Julia Angwin and
Terry Parris Jr

Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users By Race

Imagine if, during the Jim Crow era, a newspaper offered advertisers the option of placing ads only in copies that went to white readers. That’s basically what Facebook is doing nowadays. The ubiquitous social network not only allows advertisers to target users by their interests or background, it also gives advertisers the ability to exclude

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Google Quietly Drops Ban On Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

Google is the latest tech company to drop the longstanding wall between anonymous online ad tracking and user’s names.

October 21st, 2016

By Julia Angwin

Google Quietly Drops Ban On Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

When Google bought the advertising network DoubleClick in 2007, Google founder Sergey Brin said that privacy would be the company’s “number one priority when we contemplate new kinds of advertising products.” And, for nearly a decade, Google did in fact keep DoubleClick’s massive database of web-browsing records separate by default from the

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FAQ About NSA’s Interest In Angry Birds And Other ‘Leaky Apps’

U.S. and British spy agencies have sought to intercept the information transmitted by the games and other apps that users download onto their smartphones.

January 30th, 2014

By Julia Angwin and
Jeff Larson

FAQ About NSA’s Interest In Angry Birds And Other ‘Leaky Apps’

What's new here? This article reveals how U.S. and British spy agencies have sought to intercept the information transmitted by the games and other apps that users download onto their smartphones. Previous stories have detailed how U.S. and British spies have been

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