The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s investigation into data usage at Facebook related to housing and financial services advertising appears to continue, despite signs that it had been halted earlier this year.
That according to new documents released yesterday by Congress that contain written responses from the social media company on its data and privacy practices. The 450-plus page document sheds light on an investigation that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently filed a federal lawsuit against FB for discriminating against women and disabled veterans in its targeted advertisements.
The New York Times reported in late March that head of the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity division at HUD, Anna Maria Farías, “had ordered a hold on about a half-dozen fair housing investigations,” but the Facebook documents indicate that the company remains “actively engaged” with HUD to address “the concern that advertisers may seek to engage in discriminatory advertising on Facebook’s platform.”
In connection with this “engagement,” which began in the fall of 2016, Facebook disclosed that it has made “numerous modifications and improvements to its ad policies, practices, and tools.”
The documents show that Facebook’s tools allowed certain housing advertisers to exclude certain groups, including women, single mothers, and disabled veterans, from receiving housing advertisements, in potential violation of federal regulations like the Fair Housing Act.
Facebook disclosed in the documents that it is adding over the next year more humans — more than 1,000 — to its global team that reviews ads to identify policy-enforcement and potential performance issues.
For more coverage of the Facebook Files, click here.