Facebook, Amazon, and Hundreds of Companies Post Targeted Job Ads That Screen Out Older Workers (vox.com)

Older workers are accusing Facebook, Ikea, and hundreds of other companies for discriminating against job seekers in their 50s and 60s through targeted job ads posted on Facebook. From a report: The Communications Workers of America, a labor union representing 700,000 media workers across the country, added the companies to a class-action lawsuit on Tuesday, which was filed in California federal court in December. In its original complaint, the labor union accused Amazon, T-Mobile, and Cox Media Group of doing the same thing. The case, Bradley v. T-Mobile, has major implications for US employers, who routinely buy job ads on Facebook to reach users. The plaintiffs argue that Amazon, T-Mobile, Ikea, Facebook, and hundreds of other companies target the ads so they are only seen by younger Facebook users.

The lawsuit revolves around Facebook's unique business model, which lets advertisers micro-target the network's users based on their interests, city, age, and other demographic information. In the past, equal rights advocates have sued Facebook for accepting ads that discriminate against consumers based on their religion, race, and gender. Facebook has argued that the company is not legally responsible when other companies buy ads that violate the law.

Comments

Re:First question..

[Anonymous Coward]

I signed up on Facebook to stay connected with my relatives and reconnect with old friends I hadn't seen in a while. A few of the old friends I looked up, I couldn't find--so I figured we'd connect later when they created accounts. I assumed their finding me would be eased by my posting my correct info.

I read a lot of stuff on Slashdot about how bad it is that Facebook knows everything about us, but y'all haven't successfully articulated just what I should fear.
What are the potential negative consequences if Facebook knows my real name and where and when I went to high school?

The story we're commenting on is about the terrible possibility that I might not see certain ads on Facebook. That's a risk I'm willing to take.

Your resume should look young...

[The Fat Bastard]

After I went back to school to get another degree ten years ago, I dropped my first degree from my resume. Most recruiters look for three years in each of the last three positions, so I list my experience from the last ten years. Since I get hired over the phone, most hiring managers are shocked to see that my beard is snow white. Never mind that the color of my beard is irrelevant to the job.

Re:Your resume should look young...

[shanen]

Actually I was looking for the obligatory "I am shocked—shocked—to find that gambling is going on in here!" post. Of course in this case mapped to the discrimination against old people getting hired for technical work. White-bearded experience counts for much less in computer-related fields.

Your comment was interesting, but I think the most interesting aspect is that you're still scrabbling around looking for work. Not fully clear from your comment, but that's how it comes across. I hope it's because you like variety, but I think most businesses these days want the smallest number of long-term employees possible.

There's a deep mismatch here. We have long-term lives. If we starve to death between jobs, then that greatly reduces our future job prospects.

Or another way to look at it is that companies want to have continuous revenue streams coming in, but they want to minimize the money that is flowing out, especially as salaries for the lower-level employees. The soulless and inhuman corporations are programmed to focus on profit maximization without worrying too much about the externalized human sources of that revenue.

Me? I did a lot of scrabbling around in my younger days, but I never got to like it. I still enjoy working, but I'm not interested in the scrabbling now. However, I think it's your advocacy of partial truth that is bothering me the most. In my ontology of lies, I rank that as Level 2, which is mostly packed with lawyers and politicians and certain kinds of salespeople.

We should ask why it's so easy and tempting

[rsilvergun]

businesses are just that, businesses. People tend to be pretty rational when it comes to making money; albeit not always very nice about it. For example, you see some reverse age discrimination at Walmart where they prefer older workers because though they're slower they always show up for shifts.

What I'm saying is this: by and large older workers are less productive. They take time off for their kids, their health, etc. They're not willing to work 60/hr a week with 20 of that unpaid in exchange for vague promises of promotion. There are a ton of other reasons too. So unless you've got a special case like Walmart where workers are so unreliable that it's worth taking the productivity hit for consistency or need highly specialized skills then older workers just don't make economic sense

This is an economic reality we all should face. The sooner we do the sooner we can talk about what to do with all these under employed (or unemployed) workers. If you're a young'un reading this now you're either going to join the older set or die. Literally. It takes years to set up a structure to protect people since there's going to be a ton of resistance. Now's the time to start supporting change.

As for that change, we need more retirement support and better wages. Maybe Social Security at an early age. Forcing employers to hire less productive old people is just going to be bad all around. The young guys will be mad when gramps can't keep up and the oldsters will work themselves into an early grave.

Re:First question..

[H3lldr0p]

I hate to break it to you but if you got married anywhere in the US, that's considered a public record and can be looked up. Not finding a record isn't conclusive proof but it's a good indicator that you're not.

In conclusion, your marital status is already public. It cannot be used against you as part of a job application, however. Those are two different things.