In many ways, social-media platforms are simply giant algorithms.
At their heart, they work out what you’re interested in and then give you more of it – using as many data points as they can get their hands on.
Every “like”, watch, click is stored. Most apps also glean more data from your web-browsing habits or geographical data. The idea is to predict the content you want and keep you scrolling – and it works.
And those same algorithms that know you enjoy a cute-cat video are also deployed to sell you stuff.
All the data social-media companies collect about you can also tailor ads to you in an incredibly accurate way.
Source: BBC Technology News
Date: August 18th, 2020
Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53806038
Discussion
- ” these algorithms can go seriously wrong. They have been proved to push people towards hateful and extremist content. ” Why is this?
- What might Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram and others do about this?
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