Facebook files patent for tech economic status identifier of users

Facebook has filed a patent for a technology to automatically detect user’s economic status by collecting users’ personal data including their internet usage, home ownership and education. The patent also suggested ab algorithm which may improve Facebook’s advertisement targeting capabilities. Facebook would ask users about their travel history, geo-tagging and devices the user owns and highest level of education.

The patent, that was made public on February 2, 2018, that will segregate users in one of the three classes, “working, middle or upper class”.

“By predicting their socio-economic groups of users Facebook is able to help the third party present sponsored content to the target users” the patent read.

Facebook would ensure to ask the users age and only throw question that would be seemingly relevant to users of that age group.

“In the filing, 20 to 30-year-olds are asked how many internet devices they own, while 30-40-year-olds are asked whether or not they own a house” the report said.

“Online systems often do not have information about the income of users, because the users are typically not inclined to share income information, which may be sensitive information on online systems” according to the patent report.