In this chapter, Stephan Dreyer und Amélie Heldt focus on privacy and the general right of personality in relation to algorithmic selection procedures. They point out where gaps exist and how these could be closed. Their chapter as well as the anthology have been published in the Nomos eLibrary as an open access publication.
To the article (online, in German)
Abstract
When using the internet, it can happen that our attention is controlled by other actors on the net. Algorithmic selection processes determine what private, semi-public and public information we see on social media platforms. They automatically determine our sources of information and thus the image we have of the world and of others, as well as the image others have of us. While plenty has already been written on the relevance of the observation of individual media use and the behavioural selection of content by platforms for our understanding of opinion formation, the following article sets out in search of the autonomy references of this control of attention (section 2), points out a hitherto underexposed gap in protection under fundamental rights (section 3) and, with a consideration of the gap-closing guaranteed concept of the general right of personality, proposes a new expression of fundamental rights: the right to autonomy-preserving control of attention (section 4).
Dreyer, S.; Heldt, A. (2021): Algorithmische Selektion und Privatheit. Aufmerksamkeitssteuerung durch Social Media-Plattformen als Autonomieeingriff? [Attention Control by Social Media Platforms as an Intervention of Autonomy?] In: F. X. Berger, A. Deremetz, M. Hennig, A. Michell (eds.), Autonomie und Verantwortung in digitalen Kulturen [Autonomy and Responsibility in Digital Cultures], pp. 117–146. Baden-Baden: Academia. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783896659378-117.