caresuch

CareSuch is a term used to describe a philosophy and set of practices in information retrieval and user experience design that prioritize user care in search results and content recommendations. It seeks to minimize potential harms, protect privacy, and promote trustworthy information without sacrificing usefulness.

Origin and usage: The term emerged in academic and industry discussions in the early 2020s as part of debates about ethical search and digital wellbeing. It does not refer to a single standardized method, but rather a family of approaches that organizations may adopt to align technology with user welfare.

Principles: Core ideas include placing user well-being at the center of design decisions, implementing privacy-by-default and data minimization, providing transparent explanations for why results are shown, offering opt-out and control mechanisms, and ensuring accessibility across devices and languages. CareSuch also advocates for bias mitigation, rapid correction of errors, and safeguards against harmful content.

Applications: In practice, CareSuch guides the development of search engines, recommendation systems, educational platforms, and digital libraries. Examples include balancing relevance with safety signals, clearly labeling uncertain or disputed information, and designing interfaces that reduce cognitive load and avoid sensationalized content.

Criticism and challenges: Critics argue that defining "care" can be subjective and difficult to measure. There are tensions between care and commercial objectives or user autonomy. Implementing care-at-scale requires governance, cross-disciplinary teams, and ongoing evaluation.

See also: information ethics, responsible AI, digital wellbeing, information literacy, content moderation.