If you’re already wary of Big Data and the reach of the Silicon Valley tech giants, here’s some more concerning news: Google might just know you better than your friends and family do.
Key points:
- Author analyses Google search data to study human psyche and emotions
- Data collected from Google searches give insights on homosexuality, marriages
- He says most surprising finding was number of people making “racist searches”
To understand ourselves and the world, we turn increasingly to the dominant search engine. In doing so, we reveal a whole swathe of personal preferences that can be collected and analysed en masse.
That’s exactly what Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has done.
A self-described internet data expert, he became fascinated with Google Trends, the site’s freely available tool for judging the popularity of search terms, while completing a PhD in economics.
He later worked at the technology company, and his book Everybody Lies: What The Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are looks at the “digital truth serum” that is internet search data.
“Certain online sources get people to admit things they would not admit anywhere else,” he says.
While you might lie to someone asking survey questions to make yourself look better — what’s called social desirability bias — your search history will reveal your true self.
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