How well does Google really know me?

Does your LinkedIn account often suggest you should invite people you met at conferences years ago and who might actually be a good professional match? That can be useful, right? Facebook’s entire engine is built around what you’ve previously liked and shared too.

Have you ever wondered what happens if a person is new to social media, though? What if he or she is a “blank slate” of sorts? How does the algorithm go about reeling in a new fish?

After decades of eschewing social media, my friend recently yielded to the pressures of today’s world and decided to set up a Twitter account, mainly for professional purposes. As soon as he clicked through the welcome page, Twitter immediately offered him an array of interesting people he might like to follow. The way it stumbled to find the matches can give us casual or regular “users” a unique insight into how these algorithms actually “think.”

First off: Andrzej Duda. Naturally, as a Polish citizen, it might be appropriate for you to know what your president has to say. Not interested? Oh well, then maybe you’d prefer Donald Tusk? After all, he is Poland’s former prime minister, now the president of the European Council, and he could well be back in domestic politics soon. He might be worth following. Still no? Well, I guess you’re not into politics that much then. What else could you possibly be interested in? What do I know about you? Let’s see: male, in his thirties, no political views whatsoever… Sports! It has to be sports. Perhaps… Zbigniew Boniek? Former star footballer, coach, head of the Polish Football Association. No? Really? OK then, be my guest, choose your own people to follow. But rest assured, I’ll just be sitting here quietly in the corner, watching your every click and learning, so that next time you crawl out from that rock you’ve been living under, I’ll be sure to have a dozen useful suggestions for you, you cybernetic hermit.

It must be a real puzzler for the algorithm using petabytes of data to come up empty. But don’t worry. All it takes Facebook is several dozen likes to predict your future political votes and preferences with an accuracy hit rate of over 90 percent.

For that reason, I sometimes chose to click on things that I would never normally be into, just to shake things up a bit. Keep Big Brother on his toes, as it were. However, recently I have been offered a slew of surprisingly off-brand content. Apparently, the algorithm has decided I was in the process of becoming more radical in my views. And not in a good way. That’s when I decided it’s probably safer if the overlords know me for who I really am. Either that or quit all social media altogether. – BKS