by Eli Pariser is a must read for anyone that makes use of personalized Internet services such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. While personalization is becoming a preference for many, Eli investigates the danger of living inside these bubbles and how they affect our relationships, identities, creativity and democracy.
The book focuses on the present as well as where we will be if we don’t become aware of what us happening with our data. Some compelling examples reveal how Google uses 57 signals to guess who you are and what you most likely to click on when using the search engine. Even if you are not logged on the search results will still be customizable. The effect of living in bubbles can be a major problem. While you may be fed information that is relevant to you, these results tend to leave out the outliers and not diversify your content intake.
Another company highlighted was Acxiom who new more about 11 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 than the U.S. government. Acxiom knows about 96% of American households and 500 million people worldwide. What they know includes family members, current and past addresses, how often credit card bills are paid, whether they own a pet, whether they are right or left handed and what kind of medications they use.
Imagine a scenario researching visiting a third world country and then applying for life insurance. Could the insurance company use that search results to increase your payments? Companies are developing technologies that will enable us to take a picture of someone and then search for pictures on the Internet to match up even if they are not tagged with your name. Imagine the possibilities.
These are just some of the few examples and put forward by Eli Pariser in his book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You
