“We are committed to using machine learning models responsibly,” wrote Meta’s Global Director of Ads and Monetization Privacy Pedro Pavón in a blog post introducing the updates.
The changes are the result of input provided by both privacy experts and policy stakeholders, Meta says, who consistently told the company it needed to be more transparent about how machine learning contributes to the ads shown. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to provide a list of the websites or apps involved. Here, Meta will explain that businesses and organizations share information with the company, which means visiting other websites or using other apps and interacting with related products outside of Facebook also plays a role in ad targeting. While some of that may not be a surprise to users, the additional information about off-Meta activity may be more eye-opening. The “Why am I seeing this ad?” feature itself continues to be offered by clicking on the three-dot menu in the upper-right-hand corner of any ad shown on Facebook. Says Facebook in an announcement, this information could include things such as “liking a post on a friend’s Facebook page or interacting with your favorite sports website.” The tool will also introduce new examples and even illustrations that detail how the machine learning models work. It says that it will now summarize information about ad targeting into topics that inform users how their Facebook activity and engagement outside of Facebook may have informed its machine learning models used in ad targeting. With the changes to the “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool, Facebook will now attempt to better explain to users how it makes those connections.
But while this targeting has been effective, it’s also given Facebook a creepy image problem that’s convinced even the most rational users that Facebook has somehow found a way to listen to their conversations.
FACEBOOK AD IMAGE TOOL OFFLINE
In reality, Facebook’s ability to precisely and eerily display ads about brands or businesses users had just been discussing offline is more likely the result of Meta’s highly developed ad technology that tracks users well beyond the Facebook app itself. The company for years has fought off rumors that it’s listening to users’ conversations in order to target them with relevant ads. Specifically, it will now highlight how user activity both on and off Facebook may inform its machine learning models and it will detail how those models work to connect topics. The company says it’s updating a nearly decade-old Facebook feature “Why am I seeing this ad?” to better explain to consumers how an AI technique called machine learning may have played a role in the ad’s placement, among other factors. Meta today announced it’s making changes to increase transparency around ads.
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