Research on existing or emerging IT-related technology and related ethical issues
Ethical Issues Related to Search Engines
The advent of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing revolutionized how people explore the World Wide Web in their search for information. These engines display a list of sites that are related to the words entered in the corresponding search field organized by relevance, sparing the user from manually looking for information and saving valuable time. Moreover, filters are now available in many search engines that allow for more precise searches, by requesting to only show results that include a specific set of words, exclude certain terms, or look through a specific set of web pages. In consideration, search engines appear to be nothing but beneficial to their users, but just as other digital technologies, there are some aspects of these search tools that are unknown or disregarded by the majority of their users, estimated at 1.52 billion by Richter (2013), that may step into ethical gray zones and deserve further analysis, which is why this topic was selected for the development of assignment C2.
First, how do advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques affect the objectivity of search engine results? It is known that search engines profit from advertising and thus it is important to evaluate how much of the content shown to a user is actually relevant and how much is only displayed for advertisement purposes. Moreover, given that the order in which the engine displays results responds to the relevance of the page to the descriptive words, calculated by complex algorithms, many web developers utilize tactics to improve the positioning of their sites in the results page, often through the use of misleading information.
Second, is the privacy of users respected by protecting the personal information disclosed through searches? This is one of the main points of concern regarding the ethics of search engines, as their creators have the capability of storing information for massive data collection, which can later be used to study global trends and supply information to corporations for advertising purposes. According to Tavani (2012), the primary concern is the fact that this information is not voluntarily disclosed by the users. In consideration, this aspect requires further analysis.
Third, do search engines work on democratic principles? Search engines have a great influence on the information people access, thus playing a major role in tendencies and opinions. Some claim that search engines systematically exclude sites at the favor of others (Introna and Nissenbaum), which raises ethical concerns.
These are the main points to be analyzed in the development of assignment C2, as research of the ethical issues related to search engines.
References
Intronca, L., & Nissenbaum, H. (2003). Shaping the web: Why the politics of search engines matters. The Information Society.
Richter, F. (2013, February 12). 1.17 Billion People Use Google Search. Retrieved from Statista: The Statistics Portal: https://www.statista.com/chart/899/unique-users-of-search-engines-in-december-2012/
Tavani, H. (2012, August 27). Search Engine and Ethics. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-search/
