When the tech giants are attacked for the role they play in spreading the evils of the internet such as fake news, child pornography and bigotry; they hide behind their algorithms explaining that they do not make the choices. They claim it is all up to artificial intelligence that does not discriminate. But it turns out that the algorithms did discriminate as Apple's new credit card customers found out when the company's algorithm gave men higher credit limits than women. Google, the search engine that is so ubiquitous and powerful that it has become a verb, claims that the company does not tinker with search results. The Wall Street Journal has however found by testing Google research results, that in the case of businesses; big companies are favoured over smaller ones. The writers say the claim that Google does not use humans to arrange results on a page, is simply not true. This WSJ article has been contested fiercely by Barry Schwartz, the news editor of Search Engine Land who says search is more complicated than the study by the WSJ that shows "a lack of understanding." When the internet giants select results to protect minors, weed out discrimination and content that fosters abuse or encourages harm; we probably all applaud it. But the power that they yield over our lives is worrying. As a senior British intelligence officer, Sir David Omand recently noted; the internet giants had more personal information about us than any intelligence agency had ever had or should have. The agencies are governed by strict regulations; there are no rules for the internet giants. – Linda van Tilburg

How Google interferes with its search algorithms and changes your results