Facebook's algorithm couldn't be more opaque.
But there are those who prefer to be more opaque, at least in cyberspace.
"The trust is going to be more opaque to people like you or me," said Edward McCaffery, a law professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
The reason is that search results or news feeds could then be "gamed" by external operators whose objectives might be even more questionable – and would certainly be more opaque – than those of Google and Facebook.
On camera, ordinary people, who are not professionally obligated to be either consistent or legible, tend to be more opaque than their professional counterparts, which can be awkward when the cast is a blend of amateurs and professionals, as in "All the Real Girls".
"The balance sheets of [pension funds and other financial firms] tend to be more opaque and more easily changed than those of commercial firms," he cautioned in a CFTC white paper he co-authored with the regulator's chief economist.
