Conspiracy Theories and Blackbox Algorithms

It's a catch-22. We have a software program that looks for suspicious reviews and takes them off a businesses page and this allows critics of Yelp to suggest that we've tied this system to sales. Is it only Yelp that faces such accusations? Hardly. Any important system with a similar "blackbox" gets the same conspiracy treatment. Yesterday in the New York Times:

"Google uses a proprietary algorithm to assign 'quality scores' to advertisers’ sites, using measures like the apparent usefulness of the sites. Advertisers with low scores have to pay more for their ads, and many advertisers have complained that Google can use the system to manipulate prices."

Sound familiar? I don't believe it. You probably shouldn't either.