  Some critics have pointed out that conflicts of interest involving SECs are not limited to bias and unfair business practices in the commercial sector, but can also affect the free flow of knowledge in society. For example, Carr (2011, 163) worries that the commercial control that Google and other major SECs now have over the “distribution of digital information” could ultimately lead to “restrictions on the flow of knowledge.” And Hinman (2008, 67) believes that the control of knowledge that SECs have is “in a very fundamental sense, a public trust, yet it remains firmly ensconced in private hands and behind a veil of corporate secrecy.” Much of this secrecy, as we have seen, is closely tied to the proprietary search algorithms that major search engines use, which also raises the question of whether aspects of these algorithms should be more transparent to the general public. But Elgesem (p. 241) believes that SECs should not be required to disclose information about their proprietary search algorithms, arguing instead that they should be required to (a) make their policies known to users and (b) follow those policies as closely as possible.