Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine

by Hannah Fry

through the various pages. Sales went up, customers were happy. But not all of them. Shortly after the launch of the feature, one woman contacted Tesco to complain that her data was wrong. She’d been shopping online and seen condoms among her list of ‘My Favourites’. They couldn’t be her husband’s, she explained, because he didn’t use them. At her request, the Tesco analysts looked into the data and discovered that her list was accurate. However, rather than be the cause of a marital rift, they took the diplomatic decision to apologize for ‘corrupted data’ and remove the offending items from her favourites.

Wonder if she ever found out.