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Algorithms: where’s the harm?

By  |  January 29, 2021

By: Helena Quinn (CMA Blog)

We all like to find the things we want online quickly and easily. Whether that is the next film to watch, article to read or food to order, algorithms can provide us with individualised recommendations that are relevant and save us time.

But what happens if an algorithm is changing what we see and manipulating the choices we make in ways we don’t know about or understand?

As the UK’s competition and consumer authority, we want to find out where algorithms are harming consumers or reducing competition, and work with companies to address this.

We have therefore launched a new programme of work in the Data, Technology and Analytics (DaTA) unit focused on analysing algorithms.

The first output of the programme is our research paper, Algorithms: how they can reduce competition and harm consumers…

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