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Google unwittingly allowed advertisers to discriminate against nonbinary people

Igor Bonifacic
·Contributing Writer
·2 min read

An investigation by The Markup has found that Google inadvertently allowed advertisers to discriminate against nonbinary and some transgender people. An oversight on the company’s ads dashboard allowed employers and landlords to prevent people of “unknown gender” — that is individuals who don’t identify as either male or female — from seeing their advertisements. Federal law prohibits discrimination based on gender or race when it comes to ads related to employment and housing.

The company said it would fix the oversight after The Markup shared its findings. “We will be implementing an update to our policy and enforcement in the coming weeks to restrict advertisers from targeting or excluding users on the basis of the ‘gender unknown’ category,” Google spokesperson Elijah Lawal told the publication.

The Markup found two job ads that had excluded those of “unknown gender” from seeing them. One came from FedEx while another was posted by a pest control chain in California. Neither company commented on their respective ads. According to Google, an internal audit “identified approximately 100 advertisers out of many thousands” that had done the same with their housing, credit or job ads.

When it comes to all ads, not just those in the housing and jobs categories, the company’s policies prohibit advertisers from excluding people on the basis of a nonconforming gender identity. However, its demographics dashboard, which allows advertisers to target their advertisements at individuals based on their gender, age, parental status and household income, allowed users to deselect the “unknown gender” option in spite of its policies. “This is why we are working swiftly to implement a change,” Lawal said.

Whether the advertisers that disabled the unknown gender checkbox did so purposefully or not, Google’s oversight highlights a significant hurdle non-binary and transgender people already face in day-to-day lives. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, more than one in four transgender people have lost a job due to bias, and unemployment among the community is about two times higher than the national average.

Latest Stories

  • A Crypto Kid Had a $23,000-a-Month Condo. Then the Feds Came

    (Bloomberg) -- Stefan Qin was just 19 when he claimed to have the secret to cryptocurrency trading.Buoyed with youthful confidence, Qin, a self-proclaimed math prodigy from Australia, dropped out of college in 2016 to start a hedge fund in New York he called Virgil Capital. He told potential clients he had developed an algorithm called Tenjin to monitor cryptocurrency exchanges around the world to seize on price fluctuations. A little more than a year after it started, he bragged the fund had returned 500%, a claim that produced a flurry of new money from investors.He became so flush with cash, Qin signed a lease in September 2019 for a $23,000-a-month apartment in 50 West, a 64-story luxury condo building in the financial district with expansive views of lower Manhattan as well as a pool, sauna, steam room, hot tub and golf simulator.In reality, federal prosecutors said, the operation was a lie, essentially a Ponzi scheme that stole about $90 million from more than 100 investors to help pay for Qin’s lavish lifestyle and personal investments in such high-risk bets as initial coin offerings. At one point, facing client demands for their money, he variously blamed “poor cash flow management” and “loan sharks in China” for his troubles. Last week, Qin, now 24 and expressing remorse, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to a single count of securities fraud.“I knew that what I was doing was wrong and illegal,” he told U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who could sentence him to more than 15 years in prison. “I deeply regret my actions and will spend the rest of my life atoning for what I did. I am profoundly sorry for the harm my selfish behavior has caused to my investors who trusted in me, my employees and my family.”Eager InvestorsThe case echoes similar cryptocurrency frauds, such as that of BitConnect, promising people double-and triple-digit returns and costing investors billions. Ponzi schemes like that show how investors eager to cash in on a hot market can easily be led astray by promises of large returns. Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX collapsed in 2019 as a result of fraud, causing at least $125 million in losses for 76,000 investors.While regulatory oversight of the cryptocurrency industry is tightening, the sector is littered with inexperienced participants. A number of the 800 or so crypto funds worldwide are run by people with no knowledge of Wall Street or finance, including some college students and recent graduates who launched funds a few years ago.Qin’s path started in college, too. He had been a math whiz who planned on becoming a physicist, he told a website, DigFin, in a profile published in December, just a week before regulators closed in on him. He described himself on his LinkedIn page as a “quant with a deep interest and understanding in blockchain technology.”In 2016, he won acceptance into a program for high-potential entrepreneurs at the University of New South Wales in Sydney with a proposal to use blockchain technology to speed up foreign exchange transactions. He also attended the Minerva Schools, a mostly online college based in San Francisco, from August 2016 through December 2017, the school confirmed.Crypto BugHe got the crypto bug after an internship with a firm in China, he told DigFin. His task had been to build a platform between two venues, one in China and the other in the U.S., to allow the firm to arbitrage cryptocurrencies.Convinced he had happened upon a business, Qin moved to New York to found Virgil Capital. His strategy, he told investors, would be to exploit the tendency of cryptocurrencies to trade at different prices at various exchanges. He would be “market-neutral,” meaning that the firm’s funds wouldn’t be exposed to price movements.And unlike other hedge funds, he told DigFin, Virgil wouldn’t charge management fees, taking only fees based on the firm’s performance. “We never try to make easy money,” Qin said.By his telling, Virgil got off to a fast start, claiming 500% returns in 2017, which brought in more investors eager to participate. A marketing brochure boasted of 10% monthly returns -- or 2,811% over a three-year period ending in August 2019, legal filings show.His assets got an extra jolt after the Wall Street Journal profiled him in a February 2018 story that touted his skill at arbitraging cryptocurrency. Virgil “experienced substantial growth as new investors flocked to the fund,” prosecutors said.Missing AssetsThe first cracks appeared last summer. Some investors were becoming “increasingly upset” about missing assets and incomplete transfers, the former head of investor relations, Melissa Fox Murphy, said in a court declaration. (She left the firm in December.) The complaints grew.“It is now MID DECEMBER and my MILLION DOLLARS IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN,” wrote one investor, whose name was blacked out in court documents. “It’s a disgrace the way you guys are treating one of your earliest and largest investors.”Around the same time, nine investors with $3.5 million in funds asked for redemptions from the firm’s flagship Virgil Sigma Fund LP, according to prosecutors. But there was no money to transfer. Qin had drained the Sigma Fund of its assets. The fund’s balances were fabricated.Instead of trading at 39 exchanges around the world, as he had claimed, Qin spent investor money on personal expenses and to invest in other undisclosed high-risk investments, including initial coin offerings, prosecutors said.So Qin tried to stall. He convinced investors instead to transfer their interests into his VQR Multistrategy Fund, another cryptocurrency fund he started in February 2020 that used a variety of trading strategies -- and still had assets.‘Loan Sharks’He also sought to withdraw $1.7 million from the VQR fund, but that aroused suspicions from the head trader, Antonio Hallak. In a phone call Hallak recorded in December, Qin said he needed the money to repay “loan sharks in China” that he had borrowed from to start his business, according to court filings in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He said the loan sharks “might do anything to collect on the debt” and that he had a “liquidity issue” that prevented him from repaying them.“I just had such poor cash flow management to be honest with you,” Qin told Hallak. “I don’t have money right now dude. It’s so sad.”When the trader balked at the withdrawal, Qin attempted to take over the reins of VQR’s accounts. But by now the SEC was involved. It got cryptocurrency exchanges to put a hold on VQR’s remaining assets and, a week later, filed suit.Asset RecoveryBy the end, Qin had drained virtually all of the money that was in the Sigma Fund. A court-appointed receiver who is overseeing the fund is looking to recover assets for investors, said Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. About $24 million in assets in the VQR fund was frozen and should be available to disperse, he said.“Stefan He Qin drained almost all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned, stealing investors’ money, spending it on indulgences and speculative personal investments, and lying to investors about the performance of the fund and what he had done with their money,” Strauss said in a statement.In South Korea when he learned of the probe, Qin agreed to fly back to the U.S., prosecutors said. He surrendered to authorities on Feb. 4, pleaded guilty the same day before Caproni, and was freed on a $50,000 bond pending his sentencing, scheduled for May 20. While the maximum statutory penalty calls for 20 years in prison, as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed that he should get 151 to 188 months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines and a fine of up to $350,000.That fate is a far cry from the career his parents had envisioned for him -- a physicist, he had told DigFin. “They weren’t too happy when I told them I had quit uni to do this crypto thing. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll complete my degree. But what I really want to do is trade crypto.”The case is U.S. v Qin, 21-cr-75, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)(Updates with comment from prosecutor and case caption)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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    The WallStreetBets crowd has rushed into the Canadian cannabis sector sending stocks, such as Sundial Growers (SNDL), soaring. The stock went from trading for pennies to one with a market cap hitting $3.6 billion. The big issue for investors that don’t cash out on these gains is that Sundial isn’t poised to benefit from the potential legalization of pot in the US, which is a big part of the basis for this crowed buying these cannabis stocks. The company is in a much better position now after raising a large amount of cash, but the stock's move doesn’t help change the weak financial prospects of the business. Stunning Rally Back in early November, Sundial traded at only $0.14. The stock and the company were an afterthought in the industry after reporting Q3 revenues of only C$12.9 million. In the quarter, Sundial saw revenues collapse 36% from Q2 levels as the cannabis company shifts out of the wholesale business to focus on branded cannabis products. The Canadian cannabis sector has a long history of companies shifting from product segments to only rush straight into another competitive segment without any margin power in an oversupplied market. Due to the WallSteetBets insanity, the stock almost reached the $4 level today, before giving back some of the gains it made over the past few days. With a current market cap of $3.6 billion, the valuation doesn’t match with a company struggling to generate $10 million in quarterly revenues. Better Financial Position Sundial is definitely in a better position after this stock rally, since the company has raised $175 million in the last month. On February 2, the company raised $74.5 million selling 74.5 million shares plus warrants at $1. Only a few days earlier, Sundial raised $100 million selling 133 million shares plus warrants at around $0.75 per unit. Investors should note that Sundial rushed out both offerings at $1 or less while the stock sits at $2.38 now. The management team clearly thought the lower stock prices warranted a good price to sell shares. The additional cash could help the prospects of the company where analysts were only targeting 2021 sales of $66 million. Unfortunately though, Sundial is still generating EBITDA losses due to 20% grow margins and the sector is littered with companies trying to alter the product mix to limited success. Takeaway The key investor takeaway is that the recent stock move in Sundial isn’t justified by any changes in the prospects of their cannabis business as the company is locked out of the U.S. market. Sundial has raised a lot of cash to improve the balance sheet, but the company still hasn’t proven any ability to actually sell cannabis, whether wholesale or branded, at solid profits. The WallStreetBets crowd could clearly push the stock higher in the next few days or weeks, but Sundial has no business prospects supporting the stock above $1. Investors should cash out before the stock falls like GameStop previously. The view from the Street is hardly any rosier. Not only does the stock show a Moderate Sell consensus with not a single Buy rating over the past three months, but the current consensus price target indicates ~87% downside risk. (See SNDL stock analysis on TipRanks) Disclosure: No position. Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be taken as a solicitation to purchase or sell securities.

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Casting his gaze at the broader markets, Hammond points out that since 2012, the S&P 500 performance has consistently been positively correlated with inflation bets. “Improving growth expectations often correspond with higher breakeven inflation, rising earnings expectations, and improving investor sentiment, which more than offset the higher discount rate,” Hammond wrote, backing his belief that inflation fears should remain low. With rates and inflation low, this makes the stock market the go-to place for investors seeking higher returns. And within the stock market, penny stocks are sure to attract attention. These names trading for under $5 per share are considered to be some of the most controversial on the Street, and divide market watchers into two factions: critics and fans. The former brings a valid argument to the table. Stocks don’t just end up trading at such low levels; typically, there’s a very real reason for their bargain price tags. As for the latter, the potential for an investment worth only pocket change to appreciate even a seemingly insignificant amount, the result of which could be massive percentage gains, is too enticing to ignore. The implication for investors? Due diligence is essential, as some penny stocks might not have what it takes to climb their way back up. Using TipRanks’ database, we pinpointed two compelling penny stocks, as determined by Wall Street pros. Each has earned a “Strong Buy” consensus rating from the analyst community and brings massive growth prospects to the table. We’re talking about triple-digit upside potential here. Checkpoint Therapeutics (CKPT) We will start with Checkpoint Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that works in the oncology field. Checkpoint acquires, develops, and commercializes immune-enhanced combination treatments for solid tumor cancers. Checkpoint has two leading drug candidates, CK-101 and CK-301. CK-101, known as cosibelimab, is a small-molecule targeted anti-cancer agent, currently undergoing a Phase 1/2 clinical study for the treatment of specific non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug candidate targets cancers susceptible to the EGFR mutation, making it applicable to approximately 20% of NSCLC patients. The drug has shown promise compared to traditional chemotherapy treatments. Further studies will test CK-101 against tumor progression due to resistance mutations. The second candidate, CK-301, is an antibody drug currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial focused on patients with selected recurrent or metastatic cancers. The selected cancers include NSCLC, as well as metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, head and neck cancer, and urothelial carcinoma. All of these cancers are responsive to the therapeutic action of CK-301, an anti-tumor response due to blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. CK-301 has shown a 44% objective response rate in treated patients during the Phase 1 study, along with a 10.3-month median progression-free survival rate, when compared to currently available approved treatments. Based on these results, the company is continuing its clinical phase program, including an early registration of patients for a Phase 3 study. Among the fans is Cantor analyst Jennifer Kim who writes, “We think the risk-reward is favorable heading into the full, reg-enabling Phase 1 readout for cosibelimab in metastatic CSCC in 2H21. We view this as the key near term focus for CKPT. We expect a positive readout based on what we have viewed as strong interim data that have recently been presented for cosibelimab (SITC 2020, ESMO 2020).” The analyst added “The potential peak sales opportunity for cosibelimab is underappreciated, in our view, and we expect upwards earnings estimate revisions to drive CKPT shares higher.” In line with her upbeat outlook on the cosibelimab potential, Kim rates CKPT shares an Overweight (i.e., Buy), and her $16 price target indicates confidence in a 331% upside potential for the stock. (To watch Kim’s track record, click here) Turning now to the rest of the Street, other analysts are on the same page. With only Buys assigned in the last three months, 3 to be exact, the word on the Street is that CKPT is a Strong Buy. Additionally, the $17.67 average price target brings the upside potential to 365%. (See CKPT stock analysis on TipRanks) Galmed Pharmaceuticals (GLMD) Next up we have Galmed Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotech specializing in liver, metabolic and inflammatory diseases. The company’s lead candidate is aramchol, a liver targeted SCD‑1 modulator, designated for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), for which aramchol has been given Fast Track Designation status by the FDA. NASH is a fatty liver disease, closely correlated to obesity, for which there are currently no targeted drugs available. Due to the growing obesity rates, the market for NASH medications is expected to grow significantly over the next few years, with some estimating it could be worth $35 billion. Whoever brings a solution into play stands to cash in handsomely. Aramchol has completed Phase 2a and Phase 2b trials and is currently in Phase 3. However, the enrollment for the study was recently temporarily halted; Aramchol meglumine - an NCE (new chemical entity) with extended IP compared to aramchol, and which the company is switching to - is earmarked to take aramchol’s place in the ongoing Phase 3 ARMOR study. In Q2, Galmed expects to sit down with the FDA to discuss substituting aramchol meglumine for aramchol, and file the IND in 1H21. Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse thinks the company has been playing its cards right. “Of course, delaying Phase 3 by one year in a competitive NASH field is suboptimal but given all NASH trials are being delayed by COVID anyway, we think Galmed made the right decision to transition to aramchol meglumine now. At this point, FDA go-ahead remains the most important catalyst in 2021, followed by 24- week open label data from the first cohort,” the 5-star analyst opined. Galmed has also recently added a new candidate to the pipeline called Amilo-5MER, a 5 amino acid peptide that inhibits Serum Amyloid A (SAA) polymerization and aggregation. The company believes that Amilo-5MER could potentially play a role in numerous indications, such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and COVID-19. “Preclinical data presented by Galmed show good activity in IBD and RA mouse models… This adds an interesting new value driver for Galmed beyond NASH, which is ongoing,” Seedhouse added. To this end, Seedhouse rates GLMD an Outperform (i.e. Buy) along with a $17 price target. Should his thesis play out, a twelve-month gain of 270% could potentially be in the cards. (To watch Seedhouse’ track record, click here) Wall Street analysts are firmly on Galmed’s side; The stock’s Strong Buy consensus rating is based on Buys only - 4, in total. Like Seedhouse, other analysts are anticipating big returns; At $19, the average price target implies gains of 314% in the year ahead. (See GLMD stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for penny stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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  • Tilray Plunges Most on Record as Cannabis Stocks Tumble

    (Bloomberg) -- Tilray Inc. fell 50% Thursday, the most ever, halting a record three-day rally as another Reddit-inspired push into cannabis stocks quickly unraveled.The loss helped push the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF, known by its ticker MJ, down 25% in its biggest ever drop as other pot stocks also see-sawed from gains to losses. Canopy Growth Corp., the biggest cannabis company by market value, also took a sharp drop ending 22% lower.“The market has a pretty bad case of ADHD these days, and the latest shiny object for what has been a rabid retail crowd is cannabis stocks,” said Ben Johnson, Morningstar’s global director of ETF research. “The all-important question is whether all of those fundamentals, all of that enthusiasm is priced into the shares or not.”The week’s earlier rally was reminiscent of late 2018, when Canada was about to become the first large economy to legalize recreational marijuana use, sending cannabis stocks surging. Tilray’s three-day gain to start the week was its biggest ever, although it’s still well below the intraday high of $300 it hit in September 2018.Short sellers have been paring back bets against the pot sector since the start of the year amid organized short squeezes on Reddit, according to a report from S3 Partners. Short interest across the sector as a percentage of float has decreased to 15% from 24% on Jan. 1.However, Tilray has been a major outlier after merger arbitrage traders began building up short positions following its announced merger with Aphria Inc. in December, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3’s managing director of predictive analyticsTilray has seen over $1 billion of new short selling, bringing its short interest to 23% of available shares, according to S3. That has made it a ripe target on Reddit as users have also touted possible regulatory reforms in the U.S.Gains in Tilray led the sector’s rise earlier. However, Anson Funds Chief Investment Officer Moez Kassam said that could be because it’s one of few cannabis stocks easily available to Robinhood or day traders in the U.S.Canadian-listed firms with U.S. operations may be better poised to benefit from U.S. legalization and retail investors may be ignoring stocks like Curaleaf Holdings Inc. and Harvest Health & Recreation Inc., making it an ironic trade, Kassam said.(Updates closing market prices. A previous verion corrected the scope of a Canopy loss.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.