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 Google and Facebook Are Secretly Feeding You Information Junk FoodPosted on Jun 21, 2011
Former MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser (a name you may recognize from your inbox) explains how sites such as Facebook and Google are quietly creating a personalized Internet that removes content that may be challenging, uncomfortable or important. Pariser has written a book on the subject called “The Filter Bubble,” and breaks down the idea in the TED talk below. In one troubling example, he has two demographically similar friends Google the word Egypt. One gets news about the revolution while the other gets travel-themed results and nothing about political upheaval. TED via Lifehacker: Advertisement Previous item: What Would a Republican Conference Be Without Racial Controversy? Next item: Michael Moore Joins Olbermann for 'Countdown' 2.0 New and Improved CommentsWe are launching a major overhaul of our comments section. In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread. Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts. Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with. Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page. |
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By azythos, June 26, 2011 at 3:23 pm Link to this comment
CainJSummers says:
“...never google a drugs effects, because more than half the time you will get crap written by someone with no knowledge of the drug…”
What a load of *&%$!
If you want the straight stuff on a drug’s effects, you review the entire scientific literature, with some caution about each journals’ credibility, credulousness and ownership status, tempered by your own knowledge of pharmacology and medicine. There is no other way.
The alternative is the FDA-approved leaflet, which is the result of a political compromise between the bureaucrats of a government agency (personally no doubt personally competent people), their bosses the politician whores, and the drug industry. The latter happen do be the owners of the government. You can try non-English language regulatory agencies, but even though these agencies have to put a better front for a more intelligent public, they are all sold to the same owner.
Report thisBy katsteevns, June 26, 2011 at 1:19 am Link to this comment
@ THX 1133
Just search scroogle on google. Easy enough.
Report thisBy azythos, June 25, 2011 at 10:54 pm Link to this comment
Eli Pariser, eh?
Well, that guy should know: He is the head propaganda agent, responsible for the continued dictatorship of the so-called two-party rule, the guy who sold Obama to our voting morons, ensuring more misery and more murder in the whole world.
So this is the guy who has the cheek to object to Google’s packaging of commercial ads? Shameless!
It is exactly as if Dr. Goebbels had protested against Madison Avenue!
Report thisBy THX 1133, June 24, 2011 at 12:04 am Link to this comment
CainJSummers, June 23 at 1:17 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
1st: You want to use a secure search page like
Report thishttps://ssl.scoogle.org
=========================
Is the address in your link correct? I can’t open it.
By vote, June 23, 2011 at 12:03 pm Link to this comment
Remember Geocities? How about piercings? Anybody sporting bell bottoms today? How long before Facebook becomes that thing that the unhip older people do? Then after ten years or so the smaller nostalgic reprise. It offers nothing unique so it will burn out and be looked back on with chagrin. “Can you believe how dumb we used to be?”
Report thisBy Chris K, June 23, 2011 at 11:45 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
With respect to Lafayette’s comment about browsing without scripts, would it not be simpler to use the “Private Browsing” feature in your browser? This is supposed to suppress all cookies and other means by which the Web site can recognize you and associate your session with the profile they have built up on you.
Report this(At least until IP6)
By gerard, June 23, 2011 at 10:02 am Link to this comment
Headline question: The word “SECRETLY”. It’s fairly obvious when all of a sudden you are quickly and neatly referred to things you didn’t ask for—frequently things to buy that will “enhance” your “personal” life. etc. etc. Or that appeal to your ego or to your prejudices.
Just wait till the government really gets serious about “filtering” the net. And if you believe at all in free speech, be thinking now about how to protect it when the clinch comes—which it will, especially if WikiLeaks people are criminalized for the cable releases. If there’s one thing autocratic governments despise it’s freedom of public information.
Report thisBy Anarcissie, June 23, 2011 at 6:11 am Link to this comment
The alternative to showing people things they want to see is showing them things they don’t want to see. An obvious question then arises: who is going to determine what they will be unwillingly shown? And what will the enforced material be?
Report thisBy CainJSummers, June 23, 2011 at 12:17 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
1st: You want to use a secure search page like https://ssl.scoogle.org
2nd: Never google a drugs effects, because more than half the time you will get crap written by someone with no knowledge of the drug. Instead search the product name on www dot drugs dot com
My wife is epileptic and her neurologist verified the information on the site and was surprised that I could find better information than he had access to. In fact, when her medication (Lamotrigine) cause her to develop pancreatitis I was the one who (with the info on that site) actually diagnosed the problem… All the doctor’s could figure out was that her pancreas was enflamed, but for the life of them, they couldnlt figure out why.1st: You want to use a secure search page like https://ssl.scoogle.org
2nd: Never google a drugs effects, because more than half the time you will get crap written by someone with no knowledge of the drug. Instead search the product name on www dot drugs dot com
Report thisMy wife is epileptic and her neurologist verified the information on the site and was surprised that I could find better information than he had access to. In fact, when her medication (Lamotrigine) cause her to develop pancreatitis I was the one who (with the info on that site) actually diagnosed the problem… All the doctor’s could figure out was that her pancreas was enflamed, but for the life of them, they couldnlt figure out why.
By drbhelthi, June 23, 2011 at 12:15 am Link to this comment
How dare you reveal accurate, documented information
about various “online information sources”!!!
Does this suggest that the next round of accurate
Report thisinformation will reveal the pharma-money sources that
influence them ?
By D.R. Zing, June 22, 2011 at 8:46 pm Link to this comment
Another area where Google does a poor job are
searches
for side effects of pharmaceuticals.
Doctors can receive or purchase books that list, not
just all of a drug’s side effects, but the actual
percentages of patients who have those side effects.
Google
buries this type of information.
For example, execute the following search steroid
epidural side effects. The search results on the
first page are all links to companies that have a
vested interest in downplaying steroid epidural side
effects.
* Death, for example, is a side effect of a steroid
epidural. Wouldn’t you like to know the percentage of
patients who have that side effect!
* Extended periods of of insomnia is also a side
effect that can result in psychosis. Again, sure
would be nice to know what my odds are of going
through
that.
* Repeated and too frequent use of steroid epidurals
can raise your blood sugar level and, if your doctor
doesn’t bother to check it and cut the treatment, you
can become diabetic. Hmm. Wonder how many people
that happens to? Don’t know.
* Destruction of large joints—that’s a side
effect, particularly if those joints are damaged
already. And that’s not a steroid epidural; it’s a
cortisone shot that any doctor can give you in his or
her
office, in the knee, shoulder or elbow. Does your
doctor know that? Do you know that? What percentage
of patients have this side effect? File not
found.
* Some people believe that because steroid injections
Report thiscan damage large joints, the epidurals in the spine
can result in connective tissue disorder, which means
basically all the soft tissue forming the disks of
your spine falls away, resulting in even more
bulging and ruptured disks. Try to find
information or even discussions about this issue on
Google. I can’t find it. Maybe you’ll have better
luck if you Google from Malaysia.
By D.R. Zing, June 22, 2011 at 8:33 pm Link to this comment
Another area where Google does a poor job are searches
for side effects of pharmaceuticals.
Doctors can receive or purchase books that list, not
just all of a drug’s side effects, but the actual
percentages of patients who have those side effects. Google
buries this type of information.
For example, execute the following search steroid
epidural side effects. The search results on the
first page are all links to companies that have a
vested interest in downplaying steroid epidural side
effects.
* Death, for example, is a side effect of a steroid
epidural. Wouldn’t you like to know the percentage of
patients who have that side effect!
* Extended periods of of insomnia is also a side
effect that can result in psychosis. Again, sure
would be nice to know what my odds are of going through
that.
* Repeated and too frequent use of steroid epidurals
can raise your blood sugar level and, if your doctor
doesn’t bother to check it and cut the treatment, you
can become diabetic. Hmm. Wonder how many people
that happens to? Don’t know.
* Destruction of large joints—that’s a side
effect, particularly if those joints are damaged
already. And that’s not a steroid epidural; it’s a
cortisone shot that any doctor can give you in his or her
office, in the knee, shoulder or elbow. Does your
doctor know that? Do you know that? What percentage
of patients have this side effect? File not
found.
* Some people believe that because steroid injections
Report thiscan damage large joints, the epidurals in the spine
can result in connective tissue disorder, which means
basically all the soft tissue forming the disks of
your spine falls away, resulting in even more
bulging and ruptured disks. Try to find
information or even discussions about this issue on
Google. I can’t find it. Maybe you’ll have better
luck if you Google from Malaysia.
By T.L. Winslow, June 22, 2011 at 12:25 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Why do even animals sense something is wrong as they are being led to the slaughterhouse, yet Facebook keeps signing up millions of zuckers? The entire Facebook con game is evil and will only do you and your loved ones harm if you keep with it. Flee the ZuckerBeast now by deleting your account after informing your entire social network to do ditto, and move to a safer saner alternative platform.
More reasons:
http://boycottfacebookblog.blogspot.com/
Report thisBy SarcastiCanuck, June 22, 2011 at 11:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Well,I just googled Eli Parisers name and got redirected to a porn site.Wow,these guys don’t fool around…
Report thisBy Jaime, June 22, 2011 at 9:03 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Although I agree with his observation, I believe his conclusion is wrong. Yes, the results of my google requests are filtered to some degree according to what google thinks I would like to see. However, I can add additional keywords to get better tailored information to what I was actually looking for.
Report thisIn the past with newspapers and television, there was nothing that I could do to get around censored information. There were whole subjects that I was totally unaware of before the advent of the internet.
I am constantly inundated by conservative and liberal viewpoints on the radio and television, but I am able to go to the internet to get a libertarian perspective.
Before the internet, I never heard of a place called Pattaya. I plan to visit it soon. This may be controversial to some people, but before the internet, I was not allowed to even make a choice.
Sure, there may be some algorithmic filtering of what you see when you do a search. But you can still be more specific on even the tiniest thing that catches your attention.
For instance, when I googled Egypt, I saw mainly benign articles pop up. However, when I googled Egypt+Riots, I saw a ton of articles about the riots and the political situation there. I can find different viewpoints on their causes.
We all have a mental filter that perceives how we perceive reality. I guess we just need to aware that even our search engine may be filtering to some degree.
By gerard, June 22, 2011 at 8:52 am Link to this comment
I really welcome this article. At least the behind-the-scenes manipulation is out in the open. What’s maddening is the difficulty of maintaining our own personal control. If we know it’s jumk food, we don’t have to eat it. But with the net it’s not that simple. Means we have to develop our own filter in our own head, consciously, deliberately, carefully. Most people won’t do that; it’s too difficult. Therefore maybe every high school kid from now on should be taught the basic how-tos and encouraged to use them. Then again, “just say no” didn’t work so well, did it?
Report thisNo substitute for a “liberal arts” education after all. Critical thinking, anyone? Reasoning skills?
Propaganda Analysis 1A? .... “If one train is moving east at the rate of 70 miles an hour while another ...., where ......?” Where is Emanuel Kant when we need him?
By diman, June 22, 2011 at 7:13 am Link to this comment
Here is another one for you - stay away from Facebook.
Report thisBy Lafayette, June 22, 2011 at 6:42 am Link to this comment
NO SCRIPTS
If you don’t want google or Facebook to send you “selected” responses when you key-word a subject, then chose to fly under the radar.
There are variety of ways to do this, but the prime objective is to leave neither site any information that allows it to configure information that you have given them. How’s that?
Both sites, by means of “scripts” working in the background, can obtain based upon your usage on their site. It takes a while, but they will then use the data to create a map of your tastes. It them relates back to you whatever you are accessing (on their site) according to the configuration of your tastes and likes that it has concocted.
How does one avoid giving away the data employed in this machination? The best tactic, I think, to date is use the Firefox browser with the No Scripts add-on. By using the browser in this manner it cannot run scripts that it finds on sites that effectively “spy on you” by giving up meaningful data regarding your browsing habits. Not about your identity, mind you, but the pattern in which you select information.
In this way, they can “prejudice” your use of their sites by manipulating the manner in which information you are seeking is offered up to you.
CAVEAT
The use of no-scripts software is a pain-in-the-ass, however. Scripts are used everywhere to make things work on a browser. So, you will have to get used to the hassle of browsing without functioning scripts - which is possible but tedious.
Yours to chose ....
Report thisBy PT, June 22, 2011 at 3:04 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I agree. Sometimes I am very surprised how I can be very specific about the information that I want and yet the search engine seems to just dance around it, providing links that only vaguely match my keywords. Why do they get top priority? Why can’t I get a better match?
Obviously, it is time for us to start building our own search engines.
Report thisBy katsteevns, June 21, 2011 at 5:11 pm Link to this comment
I wonder how Scroogle operates in this respect.
Report this