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Is analytics an algorithmic equation or is it a human decision? This is a topic that is debated in the following Globe and Mail article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/the-algorithm-method-programming-our-lives-away/article1815869/.

Algorithms are mathematical formulas which consider various factors (eg. data variables) in producing some sort of outcome: predicting credit fraud, classifying customer responses, or matching people for dates. However, humans program how important each factor should be considered by the algorithm: and how these weights are assigned is sometimes not clear. The following quote from the Globe and Mail article sums up this point quite well:

“In a society with an increasing amount of ‘algorithmic authority,’….understanding who manages the algorithm that society relies on, and how those algorithms are shaped and used, becomes a key question of governance – just as, in a previous age, understanding the limits of military or police power became a key part of democratic governments.”