Algorithms Know You. Soon, They Could Hack You
In the (frightening) words of bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari.
That headline isn’t intended to scare you. It’s intended to keep you aware of the direction we’re going. Knowledge can sometimes give you a kind of power you can’t have otherwise. This story promises the power of awareness.
Algorithms dictate our (digital) lives. Your favorite Netflix show, your weekly customized Spotify playlist, the last YouTube rabbit hole you fell into, Instagram stories, Facebook posts… All these apps—that you probably use daily—are powered by algorithms solely designed to keep you engaged. You already know that.
What you may not know is that we aren’t even close to the pinnacle of algorithm design. Companies can get much better at it. They can make algorithms much more engaging. Much more addictive. And the info they’d gather from you could be much more private and intimate. I’ll try to make sense of a very possible future that, although invisible to many, you’ll see coming after readi…