This document summarizes an experiment attempting to investigate personal filter bubbles on the internet. The author describes testing different search engines, browsers, and search terms both alone and with others. Few differences were found initially. However, a targeted ad later suggested to the author raised concerns about how much data companies like Google collect. The author realizes her own bubble has been aided by personalization. Ways to promote awareness and opt out of personalization are discussed.

1. What’s in Your
Filter Bubble?Or,
how has the internet censored
you today?

2. • Personalization
• Editorial Role
• The web is a land
of opportunity (ie $
$$$$)

4. In Portland:
Me – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
S. – 30s, male, PhD but works for a
health insurance company, Libertarian
D. – 40s, female, model maker, far left
In Helena:
A. – 30s, Female, Librarian, politics
unknown
In Corvallis: In NYC:
L. – 30s ?, Female, Librarian, politics D. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far
unknown left
In Eugene: L. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
M. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
In Tallahassee:
A. – 30s, Male, Librarian, politics
unknown

9. Browser: Google Chrome
Google Account: forder@pdx.edu
Browser: Firefox
Google Account: fordemily@gmail.com

10. Browser: Internet Explorer
Google Account: not signed in

12. And then this
happened…

13. “Emily, did you know that viewers
of this show also like (Planned)
Parenthood?”

15. The Conclusion? • My test searches were bad.
• My test subjects weren’t
representative enough.
• I have created my own bubble and
Google has aided and abetted me in
doing so.
• #*@#$*@&!!!

16. How old I am
What degrees I’ve earned and where I
earned them
Who are my friends
Who are my family
Omg what does Who I have dated
the internet Where I live
Google know Where and when I’ve traveled and with
about me??? whom
Where I work
My bike route to work
What organizations I support financially
My political views
What car I drive
What bike I ride
Who I email most often and what I say
When my cat died and what vet hospital
I patronized
My favorite blog
My favorite food this week and last year
My favorite author

17. Who I had happy hour with on July 29,
Omg what does 2010 and where we were
the internet
What videos I’ve watched on YouTube
Google know
and when and how many times
about me???
What kind of phone I use and what
applications are on it and when I use
those applications
My penchant for fictional family dramas
What podcasts I listen to
What book my book club is reading,
where we’re meeting, and when…

18. So What do we 1. Burn your cookies.
do? 2. Erase your web history.
3. Tell Facebook to keep your data
Pariser’s 10 Ways private
to Pop your Filter
4. It’s your birthday and you can hide it
Bubble
if you want to.
5. Turn off targeted ads, and tell the
stalking sneakers to buzz off.
6. Go incognito.
7. Or better yet, go anonymous.
8. Depersonalize your browser.
9. Tell Google and Facebook to make
it easier to see and control your
filters.
thefilterbubble.com/10-things-you-can-do
10. Tell Congress you care.

19. So What do we do? 1. Be aware and informed.
2. Tell local decision-makers you care.
A Librarian’s 10
3. Tell Congress you care.
ways to pop the filter
bubble 4. Use a different search engine.
5. Build mutually beneficial relationships
with vendors.
6. Create our own tools.
7. Integrate awareness into our actions
and interactions.
8. Provide feedback when asked.
9. Discover what the Internet already
knows and change it.
10. Spread the word.

20. Thanks to the • flickr.com/photos/39580703@N02/6122020531/
folks who have • flickr.com/photos/cakper/5978028199/
licensed their • flickr.com/photos/mirindas/5890851809/
flickr images with
• flickr.com/photos/ncc_badiey/3095099782/
creative commons
licenses. • flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/2278294489/

21. Other resources On the Media Interview Transcript with
Eli Pariser
onthemedia.org/2011/may/20/the-filter-bubble/transcript
The Filter Bubble Web site
thefilterbubble.com
Eli’s TED Talk
ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.

22. Questions/ Emily Ford
comments/ Urban & Public Affairs Librarian
ETC Portland State University
Branford P. Millar Library
forder@pdx.edu

23. What’s in Your
Filter Bubble?Or,
how has the internet censored
you today?

24. • Personalization
• Editorial Role
• The web is a land
of opportunity (ie $
$$$$)
This book was written and published.
Pariser shows how we are being algorithmically filtered. This filtering is
to achieve a few things:
Personalization
Marketing
We’ve all personalized things. We personalize our houses with paint
colors, our bodies with tattoos, our identities with our clothing, etc.
and this all translated to the web. Our cell phones and our e-mail
inboxes have so many personalization options. They are intended to
optimize the functionality of these tools so that we can be effective
and have fun doing it.

25. If my world was indeed captured in a little bubble, I wanted to
investigate it and understand it. So I decided I’d try to
(unscientifically) see if I could find evidence of my filter bubble.
I tried to repeat the gist of what Pariser did when he talked about
having two separate people google the same thing at the same time
and see what happened. In his case, “
Brooke Gladstone: …Even a small search yields different results for
different people, says Pariser, as when two people he knows
searched “BP” during the oil spill.
ELI PARISER:
And one person saw information about the oil spill - what you can do
about it, the environmental consequences - and another person saw

26. In Portland:
Me – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
S. – 30s, male, PhD but works for a
health insurance company, Libertarian
D. – 40s, female, model maker, far left
In Helena:
A. – 30s, Female, Librarian, politics
unknown
In Corvallis: In NYC:
L. – 30s ?, Female, Librarian, politics D. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far
unknown left
In Eugene: L. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
M. – 30s, Female, Librarian, far left
In Tallahassee:
A. – 30s, Male, Librarian, politics
unknown
So I tried to replicate the experiment that Parisier talks about in his
book. For background, he asked two women to google the same
thing at the same time. The search was “bp.”

27. No difference

28. Not really any difference

29. Except this one. This particular result came from S. – 30s, male, PhD
but works for a health insurance company, Libertarian

30. So I tried to have my participants re-do the search that Pariser had the
ladies do. My subjects searched for BP. I noticed some slight
differences, as in those who live in areas with BP gas stations had
those mapped and listed up top. Other than that, there was not much
difference at all.

31. Browser: Google Chrome
Google Account: forder@pdx.edu
Browser: Firefox
Google Account: fordemily@gmail.com
So then I thought maybe it’s a browser thing? And I tried an experiment
on myself. At work I have two browsers open, one with work stuff,
one with personal. And I don

32. Browser: Internet Explorer
Google Account: not signed in
And I tried using IE, too, which I try to never use.

33. My conclusion was: meh. It failed. Yeah, maybe my searches were a
little different, but nothing of significance.

34. And then this
happened…
I was innocently curled up on my big arm chair sipping on wine with the
dog sleeping by my feet, about to watch one of my shows on Hulu (I
don’t have cable).

35. “Emily, did you know that viewers
of this show also like (Planned)
Parenthood?”
This popped onto my screen. (Parentheses is what I heard– I’m still not
sure if that’s what it said.)

37. The Conclusion? • My test searches were bad.
• My test subjects weren’t
representative enough.
• I have created my own bubble and
Google has aided and abetted me in
doing so.
• #*@#$*@&!!!

38. How old I am
What degrees I’ve earned and where I
earned them
Who are my friends
Who are my family
Omg what does Who I have dated
the internet Where I live
Google know Where and when I’ve traveled and with
about me??? whom
Where I work
My bike route to work
What organizations I support financially
My political views
What car I drive
What bike I ride
Who I email most often and what I say
When my cat died and what vet hospital
I patronized
My favorite blog
My favorite food this week and last year
My favorite author
So I looked at my Google Dashboard. And I downloaded my Facebook
data. And this is just a sample list of what Google and Facebook,
combined, know about me. Potentially what has been sold to
companies like Axciom. This more information than my partner, my
parents, and best friends know about me.

39. Who I had happy hour with on July 29,
Omg what does 2010 and where we were
the internet
Google know What videos I’ve watched on YouTube
and when and how many times
about me???
What kind of phone I use and what
applications are on it and when I use
those applications
My penchant for fictional family dramas
What podcasts I listen to
What book my book club is reading,
where we’re meeting, and when…
And it can get even more precise…

40. So What do we 1. Burn your cookies.
do? 2. Erase your web history.
3. Tell Facebook to keep your data
Pariser’s 10 Ways private
to Pop your Filter
4. It’s your birthday and you can hide it
Bubble
if you want to.
5. Turn off targeted ads, and tell the
stalking sneakers to buzz off.
6. Go incognito.
7. Or better yet, go anonymous.
8. Depersonalize your browser.
9. Tell Google and Facebook to make
it easier to see and control your
filters.
thefilterbubble.com/10-things-you-can-do
10. Tell Congress you care.
OMG What does Google Think I should Know?
OMG What does Google Want me to know?
Education/Awareness—librarians are really good at this.
Opting out – Delete cookies regularly. Have your browser ask about
cookies. Use plugins like Disconnect.
Talk to your local and national decision-makers– technology decisions
can have impacts that reach far into the future

41. So What do we do? 1. Be aware and informed.
2. Tell local decision-makers you care.
A Librarian’s 10
3. Tell Congress you care.
ways to pop the filter
bubble 4. Use a different search engine.
5. Build mutually beneficial relationships
with vendors.
6. Create our own tools.
7. Integrate awareness into our actions
and interactions.
8. Provide feedback when asked.
9. Discover what the Internet already
knows and change it.
10. Spread the word.
Local decision makers may include your library director, your
supervisor, etc. Without having these conversations I don’t think we’ll
get anywhere, which is why I moved them up on the list.
Duckduckgo

42. Thanks to the • flickr.com/photos/39580703@N02/6122020531/
folks who have • flickr.com/photos/cakper/5978028199/
licensed their • flickr.com/photos/mirindas/5890851809/
flickr images with
• flickr.com/photos/ncc_badiey/3095099782/
creative commons
licenses. • flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/2278294489/

43. Other resources On the Media Interview Transcript with
Eli Pariser
onthemedia.org/2011/may/20/the-filter-bubble/transcript/
The Filter Bubble Web site
thefilterbubble.com
Eli’s TED Talk
ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html

44. Questions/ Emily Ford
comments/ Urban & Public Affairs Librarian
ETC Portland State University
Branford P. Millar Library
forder@pdx.edu