Ethics

By analyzing people's preferences and watching habits, the YouTube recommendation algorithm is designed to capture and hold a user's attention for as long as possible by recommending videos that the user wants to watch. This is unethical because it capitalizes on the human brain's craving for dopamine and takes people away from doing things they love in real life or being productive. It also shortens people's attention spans and makes them more irritable and tired in the long run. In this way, the product behavior is problematic.

Tracker networks are widespread all across the internet, employing various advanced fingerprinting techniques to enable tracking and bypass privacy preserving measures. They build a user profile against the masses tracking everything from the website they visit to how their mouse cursor moves.  This threat to privacy is especially heightened when the user visits a website that may reveal sensitive information. One example is medical data. Telehealth services such as WebMD and BetterHelp have greatly risen in popularity due to their availability and rising healthcare costs. Even if it’s not an outright consultation, most people search for symptoms or treatments online. While all of this information would be protected by HIPAA when processed through traditional channels, absence of regulation allows this digital private health information to be collected and sold without any oversight. Lack of policy and invasive tracking techniques create a harmful environment for all users, especially for those looking for sensitive information regarding their health.