Recommender Systems, Manipulation and Private Autonomy: How European Civil Law Regulates and Should Regulate Recommender Systems for the Benefit of Private Autonomy

Abstract

AbstractRecommender systems determine the content that users see and the offers they receive in digital environments. They are necessary tools to structure and master large amounts of information and to provide users with information that is (potentially) relevant to them. In doing so, they influence decision-making. The chapter examines under which circumstances these influences cross a line and can be perceived as manipulative. This is the case if they operate in opaque ways and aim at certain decision-making vulnerabilities that can comprise the autonomous formation of the will. Used in that way, they pose a danger to private autonomy that needs to be met by law. This chapter elaborates where the law of the European Union already adequately addresses these threats and where further regulation is needed.