The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You - Hardcover

Pariser, Eli

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594203008 ISBN 13: 9781594203008

Publisher: Penguin Pr, 2011

Synopsis

An eye-opening account of how the hidden rise of personalization on the Internet is controlling-and limiting-the information we consume.

In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years-the rise of personalization. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society-and reveals what we can do about it.

Though the phenomenon has gone largely undetected until now, personalized filters are sweeping the Web, creating individual universes of information for each of us. Facebook-the primary news source for an increasing number of Americans-prioritizes the links it believes will appeal to you so that if you are a liberal, you can expect to see only progressive links. Even an old-media bastion like The Washington Post devotes the top of its home page to a news feed with the links your Facebook friends are sharing. Behind the scenes a burgeoning industry of data companies is tracking your personal information to sell to advertisers, from your political leanings to the color you painted your living room to the hiking boots you just browsed on Zappos.

In a personalized world, we will increasingly be typed and fed only news that is pleasant, familiar, and confirms our beliefs-and because these filters are invisible, we won't know what is being hidden from us. Our past interests will determine what we are exposed to in the future, leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas.

While we all worry that the Internet is eroding privacy or shrinking our attention spans, Pariser uncovers a more pernicious and far- reaching trend on the Internet and shows how we can- and must-change course. With vivid detail and remarkable scope, The Filter Bubble reveals how personalization undermines the Internet's original purpose as an open platform for the spread of ideas and could leave us all in an isolated, echoing world.

About this title

Review:

An illuminating flash-forward of what might be (Colin Fraser Scotland on Sunday)

Highlights an important and easily overlooked aspect of the internet's evolution that affects everyone who uses it (The Economist)

Pariser is an excellent debunker of internet clichés... [he] comes as close as anyone has to explaining the misgivings that a lot of internet users feel (Christopher Caldwell The Financial Times)

A book designed to agitate us into awareness, because this may be the only way we can first discover and then burst the bubble... a polemic and warning (Brian Appleyard The Sunday Times)

Explains how insidious customization of the web is limiting our access to information, and narrowing rather than expanding our horizons (Observer)

Well-written, thoroughly researched and informative . . . the possibilities become truly amazing - or, if you prefer, scary (Scotsman)

Astonishing (Andrew Marr)

Explosive (Chris Anderson)

About the Author:

Eli Pariser is the board president and former executive director of MoveOn.org, which at five million members is one of the largest citizens' organizations in American politics. During his time leading MoveOn, he sent 937,510,800 e-mails to members in his name. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, Fresh Air, and World News Tonight.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Pr
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1594203008
• ISBN 13: 9781594203008
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 294