I do not think most people know about the computer science definition of algorithm involving discrete steps. For average people I feel like your definiton of “any system that automatically sorts or elecits information, apart from responding to user input” is the only one known.

Kinda sounds like we need a decentralized, feterated internet archive for at least each nation and maybe individuals… Or maybe I just want to federate almost everything ^^’

Edit: found a discussion here on that topic in the comments