The ethics of online steering.

This paper offers an ethical analysis of online steering, the practice of personalizing search results in e-commerce based on data about users. We first outline the parallels and differences between online steering and price discrimination, arguing that online steering is more likely to benefit consumers and enhance social welfare than price discrimination. Next, we argue that while online steering does not violate any plausible specification of the equal-treatment norm, it involves an element of manipulation that is absent in price discrimination and that by itself raises ethical concerns regardless of the welfare effects of online steering. We conclude that in order to address these ethical concerns, online steering needs to satisfy a transparency condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]