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Measuring the "Filter Bubble": How Google is influencing what you click
Over the years, there has been considerable discussion of Google's "filter bubble" problem. Put simply, it's the manipulation of your search results based on your personal data. In practice this means links are moved up or down or added to your Google search results, necessitating the filtering of other search results altogether. These editorialized results are informed by the personal information Google has on you (like your search, browsing, and purchase history), and puts you in a bubble based on what Google's algorithms think you're most likely to click on.
The filter bubble is particularly pernicious when searching for political topics. That's because undecided and inquisitive voters turn to search engines to conduct basic research on candidates and issues in the critical time when they are forming their opinions on them. If they’re getting information that is swayed to one side because of their personal filter bubbles, then this can have a significant effect on political outcomes in aggregate.
This is a moderately long read, as web pages go. IMO, it's well worth the time.
The code that we wrote to analyze the data is open source and available on our GitHub repository.
https://github.com/duckduckgo/filter-bubble-study
duckduckgo-filter-bubble-study-2018_participants.xls contains the instructions we sent to each participant, as well as basic anonymized data for each participant.
https://duckduckgo.com/download/duckduckgo-filter-bubble-study-2018_participants.xls
duckduckgo-filter-bubble-study-2018_raw-search-results.xls contains a separate sheet for search results per query and per mode (private and non-private). The results are listed as they appeared on the screen for each participant, showing both organic domains and infoboxes such as Top Stories (news), Videos, etc.
https://duckduckgo.com/download/duckduckgo-filter-bubble-study-2018_raw-search-results.xls
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday December 15 2018, @04:55PM (6 children)
Doesn't work for me. And I've tried it with Igorrr's Hallelujah and a generic Flamenco por Bulerías search so I could have just as well written my name in there sample wise.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 15 2018, @05:09PM (5 children)
Interesting. If it doesn't work for you, then you're probably doing something right, that I'm doing wrong. Thanks for the reply!
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Saturday December 15 2018, @07:41PM
Well, I do have a few more privacy and obscurity stuff going around that you might not have: There's using cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 instead of google's 8.8.8.8. Also I often spoof my user agent. There's using both uMatrix and uBlock which means most tracking services just don't reach me. I don't have a smartphone with a google account syncing to their cloud over at the wifi since I use LineageOS+MicroG and syncthing for backups. Most of all I guess my dynamic ip range is blacklisted by google not to attempt prediction since my ISP rotates once or twice a week hundreds of thousands of users so the most they can do is offer general regional suggestion.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 15 2018, @09:49PM
I assume it is because google is pretty good of building a profile of someone based on their browser id string and ip address even if they are actively blocking cookies, logging in to google services, incognito mode, and blocking scripts.
Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they can tie your "anonymous" browsing habits to your logged in ones. And if you never log in, they just build a profile of you anyhow.
It is interesting to experiment with it, though.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday December 17 2018, @03:24PM (2 children)
As a followup, here is EFF's browser tracking test program.
https://panopticlick.eff.org/ [eff.org]
Be sure to click the "Show full results for fingerprinting" link after the test, and it will show you how much identifiable info your browser leaks.
I thought I was relatively safe by overriding the User Agent string to simply "Mozilla/5.0" instead of sending my OS and specific browser version. I was wrong, it still comes up as unique.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 17 2018, @04:02PM (1 child)
Yeah, all my browsers come up as unique. Starting with the fact that I've blocked web fonts, right on up to "Linux", GL settings, absence of Flash, and so much more.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday December 17 2018, @08:36PM
When I get some time later, I am going to look in to seeing how to override some of the other parameters. Browser sniffing is shitty anyways, so any website that breaks due to this is not one I would likely want to visit.
I noticed that the google search page shows a very 2008 version of google when you set the User Agent to "Mozilla/5.0", I kind of like it.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh