{"id":23922,"date":"2021-08-11T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/?p=23922"},"modified":"2021-08-11T11:00:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T11:00:19","slug":"observe-and-report-facebook-versus-nyu-ad-observatory-proves-the-need-for-policy-interventions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/observe-and-report-facebook-versus-nyu-ad-observatory-proves-the-need-for-policy-interventions\/","title":{"rendered":"Observe and Report: Facebook Versus NYU Ad Observatory Proves the Need for Policy Interventions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last week, Facebook disabled the accounts, apps, Facebook pages, and platform access associated with several researchers at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/adobservatory.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NYU Ad Observatory<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Ad Observatory is a voluntary data donation program that invites Facebook users to install a browser plugin &#8212; the <a href=\"https:\/\/adobserver.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ad Observer<\/a> &#8212; that collects information about the ads a user sees. Its most distinctive feature relative to other analytic tools, including those hosted by Facebook itself, is that once a Facebook user has accepted the terms of use, the Ad Observer allows the collection of ad targeting information by \u201cscraping\u201d (that is, recording from Facebook) what users see when they click on, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.impactplus.com\/blog\/facebook-expands-why-am-i-seeing-this-ad-feature-to-provide-more-detailed-insights-to-users\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why are you seeing this ad?<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d That information also goes into a public database, where journalists and researchers can see how and where politicians are focusing their ad spending. By all <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/mozilla\/news\/why-facebooks-claims-about-the-ad-observer-are-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accounts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the tool has robust privacy protection provisions and has passed several independent ethics and privacy audits. Facebook took the action less than a month after <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/14\/technology\/facebook-data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">announcing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that its data analytics tool CrowdTangle would be absorbed into its product integrity team, leaving access for independent researchers and journalists uncertain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The communications from Facebook and the Ad Observatory over the rest of the week varied, as did the reaction of other <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freedom-to-tinker.com\/2021\/08\/05\/facebooks-illusory-promise-of-transparency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">academics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/edelson-solidarity.neocities.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">researchers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, journalists, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/08\/09\/facebook-klobuchar-warner-letter-nyu-ad-observatory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">policymakers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and civil society groups. But one thing remains clear: <\/span><b>This incident is an example of why self-regulation will never be a sufficient mechanism for platform regulation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Letting platforms like Facebook write their own rules (and then being shocked &#8212; shocked! &#8212; when they use them to foreclose good-faith efforts to understand their impact on society) is not the solution. We should use the full array of policy and regulatory tools, including a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/Qx4TqVG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dedicated digital regulator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to ensure transparency and responsibility on how we understand the digital platforms\u2019 behaviors, the capabilities they offer advertisers, and their impact on information and democracy. This isn\u2019t just about academics and researchers, either: Consumers deserve to know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laura Edelson, a cybersecurity researcher at NYU, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LauraEdelson2\/status\/1422736706554433538\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">claimed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Facebook\u2019s action was due to her team\u2019s notification to Facebook, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/martyswant\/2021\/08\/04\/top-lawmakers-and-consumer-advocates-condemn-facebooks-decision-to-block-academic-research-on-political-ads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hours before<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d that they intended to start using the tool to explore the role of disinformation on Facebook in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. As sudden as it may have seemed, though, the shutdown was the culmination of years of prickly interaction between Facebook and the Ad Observatory. It began in 2018 when the researchers built a tool to scrape data from Facebook\u2019s Ad Library (and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/17\/technology\/political-ads-facebook-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Donald Trump was by far the largest political advertiser on the platform). The Ad Observer browser extension now at issue was launched in September 2020 to record targeting data on political ads in anticipation of the November elections. It was quickly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-seeks-shutdown-of-nyu-research-project-into-political-ad-targeting-11603488533\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">followed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by a cease-and-desist letter from Facebook to NYU, giving them 45 days to shut it down and delete all the data they had collected or face \u201cadditional enforcement action.\u201d At that time, House Energy &amp; Commerce Committee members <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/ec-leaders-urge-facebook-to-practice-transparency-and-work-with-nyu-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to Mark Zuckerberg urging him to work collaboratively with the researchers in their effort to improve transparency and accountability in political advertising. (Public Knowledge also signed a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/foundation.mozilla.org\/en\/blog\/dear-mr-zuckerberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">letter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> calling on Facebook to withdraw its cease and desist demand for the Ad Observer plug-in tool.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since last November, the two sides have been trying to come to a formal agreement. Facebook maintains the timing of their decision was unrelated to any research about the events at the Capitol.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a blog post on the topic, Facebook <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/08\/research-cannot-be-the-justification-for-compromising-peoples-privacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">claimed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it shut down the NYU accounts to protect the privacy of users. It said Ad Observatory had violated Facebook&#8217;s policies by scraping data from users who had never consented to have their information collected. Further, Facebook claimed it was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">obligated<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to stop the researchers\u2019 access because the program violated the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/documents\/cases\/182_3109_facebook_order_filed_7-24-19.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federal Trade Commission settlement and order<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In a separate statement, a spokesperson <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.protocol.com\/nyu-facebook-researchers-scraping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that publicly sharing targeting data would make it too easy to reverse-engineer a person&#8217;s interests and other personal information. For that reason, he said, Facebook only shows ad targeting data to users when they have personally been shown an ad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It turned out that the users who actually had data collected \u201cwithout their consent\u201d aren&#8217;t individual users: They&#8217;re advertisers (many of which are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/blog\/is-stophateforprofit-the-big-reckoning-for-facebook-a-former-marketing-leader-isnt-so-sure\/\">individuals or small businesses<\/a>), whose ads are by definition already public, and whose names and profile information &#8212; other than targeting &#8212; Facebook already stores itself in its publicly accessible Ad Library. And late on Friday, Samuel Levine, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/blogs\/consumer-blog\/2021\/08\/letter-acting-director-bureau-consumer-protection-samuel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to Mark Zuckerberg to rebuke Facebook for using misleading claims about the nature of its FTC consent decree to justify shutting off the researchers. In fact, as Acting Director Levine explained in his letter, had Facebook given notice of invoking the consent decree, as they were committed to do, the FTC would have pointed out that the consent decree does <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bar Facebook from creating exceptions for good-faith research in the public interest. Ultimately, Facebook acknowledged that the consent decree didn&#8217;t actually force Facebook to suspend the researchers&#8217; accounts.\u00a0It requires Facebook to implement a &#8220;comprehensive privacy program,\u201d and it\u2019s that program &#8212; Facebook\u2019s own creation &#8212; that now prohibits what the Ad Observatory team has been doing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What this incident proves &#8212; again &#8212; is that Facebook and the other dominant digital platforms have too much power and control over the information that the public needs to understand their powerful role in our society. There are few truly independent ways to study what goes on behind the walled gardens of the digital platforms\u2019 ad-driven business models. It\u2019s not a straightforward hero-and-villain situation. The NYU researchers acknowledge they\u2019re breaking Facebook\u2019s rules (even though they\u2019re rules Facebook gets to write) and won\u2019t stop until Facebook provides ad targeting information on its own. Conversely, whatever their motivations (like countering public pressure or avoiding government oversight beyond the regulations Facebook proposes), Facebook has made an enormous amount of data available to researchers through its Ad Library, Facebook Open Research and Transparency project, and projects to study the impact of the platform on the 2020 election. Facebook also has good reason to want to avoid another <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/blog\/heres-how-congress-should-respond-to-facebook-cambridge-analytica\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cambridge Analytica-type scandal<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still&#8230;one look at Facebook\u2019s record of moving fast and breaking things, only to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/09\/books\/review\/the-ugly-truth-sheera-frenkel-and-cecilia-kang.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">promise to do better later<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and it&#8217;s hard to imagine that Facebook would ever independently report ad targeting information without pressure from the government (how long have we been waiting for data privacy rules from Congress?) or from civil society watchdogs like the Ad Observatory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is already an array of policy and regulatory solutions available to Congress. For example, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/trahan.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/social_media_data_act_bill_text.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Media DATA Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is narrowly targeted to require platforms to provide information (including targeting information) about ads to academic researchers. Congress should also pass the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/115th-congress\/senate-bill\/1989\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Honest Ads Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which would require the same kind of transparency and accountability for political ads from platforms as from other public communication channels. Public Knowledge <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20200810\/14584745084\/it-doesnt-make-sense-to-treat-ads-same-as-user-generated-content.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proposed a revision to Section 230<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that would remove a platform\u2019s liability shield from all paid advertising content. More broadly, Congress should adopt <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/4R7FPfS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bipartisan legislation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to control for the abuses of Big Tech and foster competition, enact <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/blog\/the-privacy-debate-reveals-how-big-techs-transparency-and-user-control-arguments-fall-flat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">national privacy legislation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and enable greater <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/press-release\/public-knowledge-joins-23-public-interest-groups-urging-ftc-to-protect-consumer-privacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rulemaking by the FTC.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of those would be good solutions to the specific dynamics of the current altercation between Facebook and the Ad Observatory, which have to do with data collection, transparency, and the impact of highly-targeted political advertising on democracy. But what we also need is something that Congress is not capable of effectively providing in a market that is evolving and adapting all the time: rigorous, timely oversight. What Congress can do is put in place a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/blog\/key-elements-and-functions-of-a-new-digital-regulatory-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dedicated digital regulator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with the expertise and agility to anticipate and address complex questions like these. Such a regulator would provide clarity to platforms, consumer protections, and support for the public interest over corporate interests, which is critical to addressing these abuses and fostering a functioning society that is respectful of our democratic values.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Facebook disabled the accounts, apps, Facebook pages, and platform access associated with several researchers at the NYU Ad Observatory. The Ad Observatory is a voluntary data donation program that invites Facebook users to install a browser plugin &#8212; the Ad Observer &#8212; that collects information about the ads a user sees. Its most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11,14],"class_list":["post-23922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","tag-content-moderation","tag-platform-regulation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Observe and Report: Facebook Versus NYU Ad Observatory Proves the Need for Policy Interventions - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. 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