LONDON – Facebook has filed a patent application for a technology thatwill automatically detect the users’ socio-economic status and segregatethem in one of three classes — working class, middle class or upper class.
According to the patent, the social media giant wants to build a systemthat collects users’ personal data, such as education, homeownership andinternet usage, in order to predict their socio-economic status, *DailyMail *reported on Saturday.
The patent, that was made public on Friday, suggested an algorithm thatmight improve Facebook’s targeting capabilities, helping it serve up morerelevant advertisements to users.
“By predicting the socio-economic groups of users, [Facebook] is able tohelp the third party present sponsored content to the target users,” thepatent read.
“Third parties are able to effectively promote their products or services,and the online system can provide a more engaging user experience tousers,” it added.
Facebook would ask the users what is their age and from there, it wouldthrow questions that would be seemingly relevant to users of that agegroup.
“In the filing, 20 to 30-year-olds are asked how many Internet devices theyown, while 30 to 40-year-olds are asked whether or not they own a house,”the report said.
However, it is still unclear if the patent will ever actually be used foruser targeting.
The social media giant might also consider other information like aperson’s travel history, what kinds of devices the user owns, how manyinternet-connected devices they own and what their highest level ofeducation is, to know the socio-economic status.
Interestingly, Facebook has skipped the income question, acknowledging thatusers might not be comfortable telling about how much they earn per year,the report said.
“Online systems often do not have information about the income of users,for example, because the users are typically not inclined to share incomeinformation, which may be sensitive information, on online systems,” thedaily quoted the patent as saying.
Facebook could also refer to the “actions performed by the user onFacebook.” – Agencies