You Are Being Exploited By The Opaque, Algorithm-Driven Economy

Online shoppers are like Jim Carrey’s character in the Truman Show,
totally oblivious to the actual forces controlling their reality.

By Ben Schiller

4 August 2017

5 minute Read

Is internet shopping like The Truman Show–a movie about a man who thinks himself free, but whose life is actually controlled by a TV producer? Are we online consumers like Truman Burbank, hopelessly and blissfully naive while titanic companies control our fate? Are the prices we pay online a function of a competitive market, or are our choices framed in ways we don’t quite fathom?

These provocative questions are posed in a fascinating book about how platform internet companies (Amazon, Facebook, and so on) are changing the norms of economic competition. Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy argues that these companies, with their immense data advantage, are effectively making their own rules in the marketplace, beating back new market entrants, and disadvantaging customers.

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Continua qui: https://www.fastcompany.com/40447841/you-are-being-exploited-by-the-opaque-algorithm-driven-economy