Pariser says that big internet companies decide «menu options»

The cyber-activist claims that the algorithms that select information isolate the citizen from opinions other than his own

   Little by little, only the topics that most interest the user appear. Or that this social network, search engine or consumer store believes you can call attention to it. It is not by magic, but by the action of the algorithms that companies use to select information based on our browsing history. It is what Eli Pariser qualifies as the 'bubble filter'.

The collection of personal data and the adjustment of our navigation to this juicy information is the new battlefield of the internet giants. Something very far from the promise of a tool that favors to give society more democracy. "Instead, these algorithms do not worry about giving something to think," says the author of 'The bubble filter' (Taurus).

In the book, Pariser explains how large companies exploit this universe. For example, a word offers different results depending on that history. If a fan of Barcelona is looking for football, information or websites about the Catalan club will come out if he previously navigated through sites related to the team, even if the relationship is minimal.

    The same will happen with Madrid or Bayern Munich. "These companies decide what options we have for the menu," warns the cyber-activist, chairman of the board of the MoveOn website and founder of Avaaz.

A vital information about each of the Internet users. Because those small data are essential to sell advertising .. "When something is free, the product is you," adds Pariser, who participated in the Tech & Society cycle of Aspen Institute Spain and Fundación Telefónica. "We entrust information to search engines and social networks that we do not give to our closest friends," says the analyst, who also points out that in the "race" on the internet he wins "the most incendiary information". "And this does not have to be true," he says. Pariser has given as an example Donald Trump's tweets about the terrorist attack in London of three terrorists. "He spoke of things that nobody knew if they were true," said the cyber-analyst.