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More Firms Used Facebook To Block Older Job Seekers, Lawsuit Alleges (chicagotribune.com)
A proposed class-action lawsuit alleging Facebook's ad placement tools facilitate discrimination against older job-seekers has been expanded to identify additional companies. "When Facebook's own algorithm disproportionately directs ads to younger workers at the exclusion of older workers, Facebook and the advertisers who are using Facebook as an agent to send their advertisements are engaging in disparate treatment," a communications union alleged in the amended complaint, citing a legal test for employment discrimination, filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. The union added claims under California's fair employment and unfair competition statutes to the lawsuit, which was initially filed in December. Chicago Tribune reports: The Communications Workers of America is suing on behalf of union members and other job seekers who allegedly missed out on employment opportunities because companies used Facebook's ad tools to target people of other ages. The original filing named defendants are Amazon.com Inc., Cox Media Group, Cox Communications Inc. and T-Mobile, as well as what the union estimates to be hundreds of employers and employment agencies who used Facebook's tools to filter out older job hunters when seeking to fill positions. The amended filing adds Ikea, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the University of Maryland Medical System to its list of companies who allegedly used Facebook's tools to filter by age. Those three entities, as well as Facebook, aren't named defendants in the lawsuit.
The union alleged in its amended lawsuit that Facebook also uses age-filtering in ads intended to find its own new employees. In January, the union filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint about the alleged practice, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. The CWA says it has filed similar claims against dozens of companies, and that the agency has asked those employers, and Facebook, to respond to the allegations. An EEOC spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the existence of any complaints.
The union alleged in its amended lawsuit that Facebook also uses age-filtering in ads intended to find its own new employees. In January, the union filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint about the alleged practice, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. The CWA says it has filed similar claims against dozens of companies, and that the agency has asked those employers, and Facebook, to respond to the allegations. An EEOC spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the existence of any complaints.
What is it about these companies (I'm a slightly past middle aged man myself at 38) that they do not want the workers who can actually create the products they desire? This obsession with scraping the bottom of the barrel, using immigrants, the young, the inept basically to formulate complex and towering architecture needed for a complex enough system to be worthy of sale. It makes no sense what so ever.
They are dooming their own bottom line, just look at microsoft since it has been hijacked by foreign interests their quality level has practically hit the concrete and cracked it trying to go further. All in the name of trying to save a buck and now Linux is gaining a foothold on the desktop like never before (and rightly so it is now a vastly superior product and worthy of the mantle of being #1). At the end of the day the collapse of microsoft is inevitable at this point it is simply so large (they have a warchest which is now being used as life support) that its death is taking a long time but it is moving towards its final stages of being torn apart for sell-off piece by piece like sears. I give it maybe 20 years, probably less as their influence and power continue to bleed away, you'll start to see them floudering really badly after a decade or so (it has already started, quality so bad that updates are only performed after crossing your fingers) and then the pieces will start falling off as it shambles to the end.
If I were a board member on these companies I would be screaming bloody murder about tossing out proper human tools for the formulation of these projects. It is not a 'nice to have' it is the only bloody way these things can see the light of day without being misshapen jokes of their intent. Billions perhaps even trillions are being spent by morons trying to do it as cheaply as possible.
It is like seeing an airline switching to planes made of rubber bands and donkeys on treadmills to make trans Atlantic crossings. You can just feel how unstable and unfinished these projects are increasingly becoming. A good example would be the canadian pheonix system which was rushed, made with cheap immigrant labor and has screwed the government of canada throwing it into chaos.
Except being old is a legally protected class, just like being Black or female. Filter against Californians or beekeepers or people who drive red cars all you want. If you filter based on a protected class you have legal liability.
Legally protected for jobs, but legally protected for targeted ads?
In my opinion, Trump acts like an idiot, but the results of his work as president has been a surprise to me. I voted for Gary Johnson and I got a libertarianish president anyways. How liberals and Progressives like you have behaved since the election has totally turned me off to Democrats. I no longer even consider Democrats when I vote. Good job children.