Targeted Ads and/as Racial Discrimination: Exploring Trends in New York City Ads for College Scholarships

TL;DR

This study investigates how targeted online advertisements for college scholarships in New York City may perpetuate racial discrimination, highlighting systemic biases and proposing new auditing frameworks for transparency.

Contribution

It provides a case study linking targeted ads to racial discrimination, with data visualizations and novel frameworks for auditing opaque advertising systems.

Findings

Targeted ads disproportionately reach certain racial groups.

Systemic biases in digital advertising contribute to discrimination.

Proposed new methods for auditing ad targeting transparency.

Abstract

This paper uses and recycles data from a third-party digital marketing firm, to explore how targeted ads contribute to larger systems of racial discrimination. Focusing on a case study of targeted ads for educational searches in New York City, it discusses data visualizations and mappings of trends in the advertisements' targeted populations alongside U.S census data corresponding to these target zipcodes. We summarize and reflect on the results to consider how internet platforms systemically and differentially target advertising messages to users based on race; the tangible harms and risks that result from an internet traffic system designed to discriminate; and finally, novel approaches and frameworks for further auditing systems amid opaque, black-boxed processes forestalling transparency and accountability.