Welcome to the Tech for Good: ADM+S Dark Ads Hackathon!!

Targeted ads are visible only to those to whom they are directed, so how can we determine whether they are predatory, discriminatory, false or misleading?

The problem of false, discriminatory, and predatory advertising online is a serious one. Our researchers have been working on projects that seek to provide transparency and accountability in online advertising. 

We have developed tools and gathered data from advertising on Google, Twitter and Facebook. We are excited to share these tools and data with you!!  

We envisage that by sharing these tools and data with you that together with consumer rights organisations and academic experts we can develop innovative approaches and tools for holding social media advertisers accountable.

It’s time to take the tools that are being used to target and discriminate and put them to better use by turning them back on the commercial platforms that shape our information environment.

The Dark Ads Hackathon will build capacity in the area of online advertising accountability by sharing tools and fostering a network of researchers working in this area.

We look forward to collaborating with you for the Tech for Good: ADM+S Dark Ads Hackathon to design ideas which can provide ethical accountability in targeted online advertising.

We are asking participants to come up with ideas and approaches for providing public accountability for targeted advertising online. The hackathon will provide participants access to existing tools and data sets as one possible starting point. Any of the following approaches fall within the scope of the challenge:

• Designing strategies and tools for making sense of the large volumes of data collected by automated ad collection. For example, we have over 300,000 ads collected by the Australian Ad Observatory, complete with metadata about the ads and information about the demographics of people who received the ads. Such strategies might focus on any of the following:
  • Detecting false, misleading, and harmful ads;
  • Discovering bias and discrimination in ad targeting;
  • Detecting predatory advertising
• Designing tools and approaches for capturing and archiving ads and sponsored content from social media platforms, including TikTok, to see how people are being targeted.
• Improving on existing tools provided at the Hackathon, including tools that collect ads from Twitter, Facebook, and from Google searches.
• Developing future strategies for ad accountability.

The Hack Pack is where you will find all the tools, data and resources you need to take part in the Hackathon.

Visit admscentre.org.au/darkadshackpack 
Password #darkads