Algorithmic Marketing, Digital Twins, and the Manipulation of Consumer Behavior: Ethics and Risks in the Digital Economy

The rise of algorithmic social platforms and artificial intelligence has sparked a revolution in marketing, introducing the concept of the consumer’s digital twin — a model that predicts preferences, decisions, and emotional responses. This new paradigm expands the potential of predictive marketing but also raises ethical dilemmas related to autonomy, transparency, and trust within the digital economy. The present report examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of algorithmic marketing, addressing ethical risks such as manipulation, data misuse, and digital deepfakes. Over the past decade, machine learning algorithms have become the driving force of the digital economy. Marketing strategies are no longer based on mass messaging but on dynamic behavioral modeling through Big Data and neural networks. The concept of the “digital twin†— originally used in engineering — is now applied to individual consumers.