Abstract
It is well known that on the Internet, computer algorithms track our website browsing,
clicks, and search history to infer our preferences, interests, and goals. The nature of this
algorithmic tracking remains unclear, however. Does it involve what many cognitive
scientists and philosophers call ‘mindreading’, i.e., an epistemic capacity to attribute
mental states to people to predict, explain, or influence their actions? Here I argue that it
does. This is because humans are in a particular way embedded in the process of
algorithmic tracking. Specifically, if we endorse common conditions for extended
cognition, then human mindreading (by website operators and users) is often literally
extended into, that is, partly realized by, not merely causally coupled to, computer
systems performing algorithmic tracking. The view that human mindreading extends
outside the body into computers in this way has significant ethical advantages. It points to
new conceptual ways to reclaim our autonomy and privacy in the face of increasing risks
of computational control and online manipulation. These benefits speak in favor of
endorsing the notion of extended mindreading.