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Ethics and Information Technology

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01.09.2013 | Original Paper

Bias in algorithmic filtering and personalization

verfasst von: Engin Bozdag

Erschienen in: Ethics and Information Technology | Ausgabe 3/2013

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Abstract

Online information intermediaries such as Facebook and Google are slowly replacing traditional media channels thereby partly becoming the gatekeepers of our society. To deal with the growing amount of information on the social web and the burden it brings on the average user, these gatekeepers recently started to introduce personalization features, algorithms that filter information per individual. In this paper we show that these online services that filter information are not merely algorithms. Humans not only affect the design of the algorithms, but they also can manually influence the filtering process even when the algorithm is operational. We further analyze filtering processes in detail, show how personalization connects to other filtering techniques, and show that both human and technical biases are present in today’s emergent gatekeepers. We use the existing literature on gatekeeping and search engine bias and provide a model of algorithmic gatekeeping.

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We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers to point out this fact.

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Titel: Bias in algorithmic filtering and personalization
verfasst von: Engin Bozdag
Publikationsdatum: 01.09.2013
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Ethics and Information Technology / Ausgabe 3/2013
Print ISSN: 1388-1957
Elektronische ISSN: 1572-8439
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-013-9321-6

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