Review by Choice Review
Noble (Univ. of Southern California) has broad experience researching the design of digital media platforms and their impact on society. In Algorithms of Oppression, she offers her readers a lens to discover, analyze, and critique the search engine algorithms that perpetuate stereotypes and racist beliefs about people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, non-Christians, and other marginalized groups. Through black-and-white screenshots, Noble provides a series of compelling examples of popular Google search phrases and the results they retrieve, which anyone can repeat at home if they do not believe what they see. She also critiques Google's monopoly on information, the power of moneyed industries to perpetuate oppression of the marginalized, and the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley: she argues that these factors affect the tech industry's ability to prevent racism and sexism from seeping into in its code, apps, search engines, and other products. This book will be of great interest to academic librarians who teach information literacy courses, as well as students and faculty in computer science, ethnic studies, gender studies, and mass communications. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Rachel S. Wexelbaum, Saint Cloud State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* While searching the web with her stepdaughter, Noble, an academic specializing in information studies, was horrified to see that Google results for black girls were almost universally sexual and demeaning, whereas results for white girls were not. This experience led her to plumb the depths of online search algorithms and to write this account of her discovery that, rather than being neutral or objective, they, in fact, reflect the biases of their (mostly white and male) creators. Noble demolishes the popular assumption that Google is a values-free tool with no agenda, pointing out that advertising and political pressure have long influenced Google results. She astutely questions the wisdom of turning so much of our data and intellectual capital over to a corporate monopoly and laments the simultaneous neglect of public institutions such as schools and libraries (even while noting that library databases suffer from the same biases found in Google). Of particular note, especially for librarians, is her warning against the rush to digitization. Noble points out the privacy violation involved in posting archives about vulnerable groups online and argues for the right to be forgotten, which disproportionately affects people of color and sexual minorities. Noble's study should prompt some soul-searching about our reliance on commercial search engines and about digital social equity.--Williams, Lesley Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Noble (information studies, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; coeditor, The Intersectional Internet) presents convincing evidence of the need for closer scrutiny and regulation of search engine architecture and algorithms and challenges the accepted premise that Google results can be trusted as credible and unbiased. Using a feminist lens, the author demonstrates specific examples of search results that feature sites promoting racist and sexist stereotypes, reinforce society's hegemonic frameworks, and lead to technological redlining of women and minority groups. The book also addresses inherent problems with the corporate control of online public information sources, how sites game the system through search optimization, and how it is nearly impossible to have personal information removed from the Internet. Noble closes with recommendations for the future, ranging from needed regulations on search engines to a call for information science professionals to collaborate with researchers from the fields of sociology, gender and minority studies, and communication. She argues that while Google is a powerful resource for organizing and accessing information, it will never reach its potential without a greater commitment to shared democratic values and social justice. -VERDICT A thought-provoking, well-researched work with historical and current discussions that are especially important for information professionals.-Theresa -Muraski, Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Lib. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
How Google and other search engines represent marginalized people in "erroneous, stereotypical, or even pornographic ways."Noble (Information Studies/UCLA; co-editor: Emotions, Technology, and Design, 2016, etc.) was drawn to her subject in 2011, when her Google search on the keywords "black girls" brought up a black pornography site as the first hit. Her subsequent research has led her to conclude that such web searches yielding racism and sexism as the first results reflect "a corporate logic of either willful neglect or a profit imperative that makes money from racism and sexism." Google has since changed its algorithm for the "black girls" search, but the author has identified and writes here about many other instances of search engine "recklessness and lack of regard" for women and people of colore.g., a 2016 Google Images search for "gorillas" that produced photographs of black women. Arguing from a black feminist perspective, Noble says such search findings "increasingly lead to racial and gender profiling, misrepresentation, and even economic redlining." She notes that contrary to the popular belief that Google is a public resource, the search engine is a commercial enterprisean advertising agencythat "biases search to its own economic interests." As a result, she writes, the company often prioritizes powerful or highly capitalized industries and interests. Also, due to the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley and the general lack of people with an understanding of racism and sexism, search engines fail to carefully analyze the potential impacts of their products. Whether by neglect or deliberation, girls' identities are often "commercialized, sexualized, or made curiosities." As Noble writes, "intention is not particularly important." Meanwhile, pornography and other businesses work to maximize their search results. Other topics covered include Google's monopoly on information and the need for regulation. Jargon limits the book's accessibility, and a chapter on the views of search engine officials is curiously lacking.A distressing account of algorithms run amok. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
