OK Cupid

The Problem with Trusting Online Companies in the Digital Age
As Todd Zwillich and Christian Rudder show in “It’s Not OK Cupid: Co-Founder Defends User Experiments” Internet-based companies rely on algorithms and Big Data in order to sustain their business model. That means, these companies—from Facebook to Google to OK Cupid, the matchmaking dating service site—have to understand whether or not their algorithms are working optimally, either to retrieve the right searches in Google’s case or to match the right people as in OK Cupid’s case. However, in order to perfect their approach, they have to perform random tests—which can rub the public the wrong way when it learns after the fact that it was subjected to false information because the site it had trusted for a moment was engaged in a routine test of its processes. So is the problem or fault with the companies for testing their algorithms on the public? Or is the problem rather with the public for assuming this sort of thing would not go on? This paper will show that Internet-based companies should be expected to do this sort of thing—and it is the public who should be more aware of the extent to which they can place trust in these companies.
Anyone who goes on to an online dating site, Facebook, social media platform or uses a web browser that is not private (like Epic) but rather open (like Google) is setting him or herself up for being watched, for having his or her actions scrutinized and studied and even sold to advertisers. Sometimes, in order to perfect the online business, tweaks will be made so that more data can be accumulated. Data is the gasoline to the business engine of the online company: without it, the company will not go. Big Data is vital, as Rudder explains: “these particular experiments were kind of part of the normal course of our business” (767). In other words, this type of manipulation is par for the course: every online business does it because every online business needs to validate its own data and make sure it is using techniques that are actually good for its business. If users do not like it, they should stop shopping online, stop trusting the Internet, and stop believing that the Digital Age is all for good. In the Age of the Internet and e-commerce, the commodity is often you. Your information is what is being gathered and sold, and the way you respond to cues and signals, whether real or false (as in the case of OK Cupid’s matchmaking test), is valuable information for an e-commerce business.
Zwillich and Rudder essentially say as much: “Everybody, every time they go on a Web site, should have it in their mind that they are being watched,” summarizes Zwillich at the end of his discussion with Rudder (769) and Rudder agrees, following it up with,” Absolutely. Not only being watched, but, you know, there’s someone that’s looking at that exact same Web page that’s seeing something different” (769). That should tell every user of the Internet that while it may be a great tool for communicating and sharing information and making new friends, it is also a tool run by people looking to make a profit off your interests and your activity. It is not a free service in the traditional sense of the world. The Internet has been monetized by business plans and self-interest groups. It is a place where everything is scrutinized and tested, where nothing is really safe or secure. If you have a problem with that as a user, you probably should not be online in the first place.
The outrage over what OK Cupid did to test its algorithms was mainly because users felt that they were deliberately sabotaged. They had trusted the site to help them find the right match and the site purposely gave them a wrong match just to see what users would do. Why do people put so much trust in websites? Why do people feel like they can just accept everything that is offered to them on the Internet? Are they naïve, trusting, incapable of discerning the fact that OK Cupid has to test its algorithms if it wants to be a good matchmaking service? The outrage is really juvenile on some level: the reality is that this is what businesses must do in order to be efficient. If you’re a user and can’t get over that fact, then you should be evaluated for trust issues. Maybe you think you’re entitled to having everything always go your way. Here’s a wake-up call via the Internet: to the rest of the business world, you’re just a number—a statistic. Your information is queued up in a big, long line of Big Data code that will be used to help the online companies make more money. You want their products and services? They want to make cash off you. That’s the trade-off. And to make the relationship work, tests must be conducted. You don’t have to like it. You also don’t have to use the Internet to find a girlfriend or boyfriend. You can do that by going out into the real world.
In conclusion, the Internet is not reality. It’s an illusion. It’s a place where everything can be manipulated, where truth can be turned into fiction and vice versa. If you are an e-commerce company or a matchmaking service like OK Cupid, you understand that Big Data is the big name of the game. You understand that testing the public and its response to how information is shown them is a routine part of the business. If you’re an Internet user, you should understand as much as well. If you feel your trust was violated because OK Cupid sent you a purposely wrong match in order to test its algorithms, you should have your trust issues evaluated. You have to be wary in this day and age because this is the Digital Age—and in the Digital Age everyone is trying to sell you something. If you don’t want to be conned, you have to be alert and on your toes at all times.
Works Cited
Todd Zwillich and Christian Rudder: “It’s Not OK Cupid: Co-Founder Defends User
Experiments.” In Everything’s an Argument, ed. by Andrea Lunsford, John Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters.