Imagine a world where all the news you see is defined by your salary, where you live, and who your friends are. Imagine a world where you never discover new ideas. And where you cant have secrets. Welcome to 2011. Google and Facebook are already feeding you what they think you want to see. Advertisers are following your every click. Your computer monitor is becoming a oneway mirror, reflecting your interests and reinforcing your prejudices. The internet is no longer a free, independent space. It is commercially controlled and ever more personalised. The Filter Bubble reveals how this hidden web is starting to control our lives and shows what we can do about it.
[...]... on the basis of this data that affect you negatively, they’re usually not revealed Ultimately, the filter bubble can affect your ability to choose how you want to live To be the author of your life, professor Yochai Benkler argues, you have to be aware of a diverse array of options and lifestyles When you enter a filter bubble, you’re letting the companies that construct it choose which options you’re... orchestrate our lives The basic code at the heart of the new Internet is pretty simple The new generation of Internet filters looks at the things you seem to like the actual things you’ve done, or the things people like you like—and tries to extrapolate They are prediction engines, constantly creating and refining a theory of who you are and what you’ll do and want next Together, these engines create... in the fun In the view of the “behavior market” vendors, every “click signal” you create is a commodity, and every move of your mouse can be auctioned off within microseconds to the highest commercial bidder As a business strategy, the Internet giants’ formula is simple: The more personally relevant their information offerings are, the more ads they can sell, and the more likely you are to buy the. .. be nonprofit and advertising free “We expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers,” they wrote The better the search engine is, the fewer advertisements will be needed for the consumer to find what they want We believe the issue of advertising causes enough mixed incentives that it is crucial to have a competitive... first from New York, then from San Francisco, then from New York again, it knows I’m a bicoastal traveler and can adjust its results accordingly By looking at what browser I use, it can make some guesses about my age and even perhaps my politics How much time you take between the moment you enter your query and the moment you click on a result sheds light on your personality And of course, the terms you... about your interests Even if you’re not logged in, Google is personalizing your search The neighborhood—even the block—that you’re logging in from is available to Google, and it says a lot about who you are and what you’re interested in A query for “Sox” coming from Wall Street is probably shorthand for the financial legislation “Sarbanes Oxley,” while across the Upper Bay in Staten Island it’s probably... to light, Rather, one of the most prominent journalists in the world, retired in disgrace the next year Rathergate is now an enduring part of the mythology about the way blogs and the Internet have changed the game of journalism No matter where you stand on the politics involved, it’s an inspiring tale: MacDougald, an activist on a home computer, discovered the truth, took down one of the biggest figures... chosen the criteria by which sites filter information in and out, it’s easy to imagine that the information that comes through a filter bubble is unbiased, objective, true But it’s not In fact, from within the bubble, it’s nearly impossible to see how biased it is Finally, you don’t choose to enter the bubble When you turn on Fox News or read The Nation, you’re making a decision about what kind of filter. .. capital Writing at the height of the dot-com bubble, Tom Friedman declared that the Internet would “make us all next door neighbors.” In fact, this idea was the core of his thesis in The Lexus and the Olive Tree: The Internet is going to be like a huge vise that takes the globalization system and keeps tightening and tightening that system around everyone, in ways that will only make the world smaller... individually distinctive member of a community.” The institutions of the 1920s, Dewey said, were closed off—they didn’t invite democratic participation But journalists and newspapers could play a critical role in this process by calling out the citizen in people—reminding them of their stake in the nation’s business While they disagreed on the contours of the solution, Dewey and Lippmann did fundamentally agree . without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means. next door neighbors.” In fact, this idea was the core of his thesis in The Lexus and the Olive Tree: The Internet is going to be like a huge vise that takes the globalization system and keeps. of the world.” And that’s precisely what the filter bubble does. THE FILTER BUBBLE S costs are both personal and cultural. There are direct consequences for those of us who use personalized filters