Pixel Hunt
Tax Filing Websites Have Been Sending Users’ Financial Information to Facebook
The Markup found services including TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and H&R Block sending sensitive data
Surya Mattu
Senior Data Engineer and Investigative Data Journalist
An engineer by training, Surya built tools and gathered data to tell stories about how algorithmic systems perpetuate systemic biases and inequalities in society. He left The Markup in August 2022.
Before The Markup, Surya was the data reporter at Gizmodo’s Special Projects Desk and a contributing researcher at ProPublica. He has also worked as a researcher at Bell Labs, Data & Society, and the MIT Media Lab.
At ProPublica, he was part of the team that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for the series “Machine Bias.” At Gizmodo, “The House that Spied on Me” won the National Press Foundation’s Technology in Journalism award and was also made into a TED talk.
Surya’s OpenPGP key fingerprint is 1710 BE3C B4AF 40A8 FA9F 20CE 9B98 0BE8 CCA5 ED64.
Citizen Browser
As Demand for Medication Abortion Increases, Facebook Allows Ads for Potentially Dangerous “Abortion Reversal” Procedure
The ads appear as the company faces criticism for limiting content about medication abortions
Pixel Hunt
Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites
Experts say some hospitals’ use of an ad tracking tool may violate a federal law protecting health information
Citizen Browser
Facebook Promised to Remove “Sensitive” Ads. Here’s What It Left Behind
Facebook pledged to remove race, health conditions, and political affiliation from ad-targeting options, but The Markup found advertisers can still easily target the same people
Pixel Hunt
Lawmakers Question Education Department About Facebook Student Aid Tracking After Markup Investigation
Two Republican lawmakers said the department “has failed to protect the privacy of individuals seeking to further their education”
Pixel Hunt
Applied for Student Aid Online? Facebook Saw You
The FAFSA form included code that sent personal information back to Facebook
Show Your WorkPixel Hunt
How We Built a Meta Pixel Inspector
The first large-scale, crowdsourced study that monitors how Meta tracks people across the internet
Citizen Browser
Facebook Scammers Are Shilling Fake Cryptocurrency Using Big Tech’s Biggest Names
Facebook ads have popped up to advertise nonexistent Amazon, Tesla, and even Facebook cryptocurrencies
Show Your WorkPrediction: Bias
How We Determined Crime Prediction Software Disproportionately Targeted Low-Income, Black, and Latino Neighborhoods
A trove of unsecured data allowed the first-ever independent analysis of actual crime predictions across the U.S. by the self-described software leader, PredPol
Prediction: Bias
Crime Prediction Software Promised to Be Free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates Them
Millions of crime predictions left on an unsecured server show PredPol mostly avoided Whiter neighborhoods, targeted Black and Latino neighborhoods
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