A Google search provides the appearance of transparent and open results – of freely aggregated content. In reality, it produces ‘informed’ outcomes which are actually highly selective so that people make choices from among a limited set of options. Linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky wrote in 1989 that in democratic systems ‘necessary illusions’ with regard to freedom and control ‘must be instilled in the public mind by more subtle means.’ The ‘more subtle means’ today lie in ‘Big Data’ and complex algorithms.