Facebook targets kids and their parents' credit cards

From The Center for Investigative Reporting:

Facebook encouraged game developers to let children spend money without their parents’ permission – something the social media giant called “friendly fraud” – in an effort to maximize revenues, according to a document detailing the company’s game strategy.Sometimes the children did not even know they were spending money, according to another internal Facebook report. Facebook employees knew this. Their own reports showed underage users did not realize their parents’ credit cards were connected to their Facebook accounts and they were spending real money in the games, according to the unsealed documents.

I'm beginning to think that Facebook doesn't have our best interests at heart.

Facebook blocks ad transparency tools

You might think an organization accused of running a platform that nurtures misleading and inflammatory content would want third-party watchdogs to help it improve. You'd be wrong.

From ProPublica:

For the past year and a half, ProPublica has been building a searchable database of political ads and the segments of the population advertisers are paying to reach. We did this by enlisting thousands of volunteers who installed a web browser extension. The tool shared the ads users see as well as Facebook’s details on why the users were targeted.

And then Facebook quietly fixed some issues with their platform to "enforce its terms of service." Mysteriously, the tools from ProPublica's and others stopped working shortly thereafter.

Interview with Wisconsin Public Radio - New Kohl's CEO

I was interviewed by Brady Carlson from WPR for an article on the retirement of Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell and the promotion of his successor.