In this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump--and how this could easily happen again in the 2020 presidential election.
When Brittany Kaiser joined Cambridge Analytica--the UK-based political consulting firm funded by conservative billionaire and Donald Trump patron Robert Mercer--she was an idealistic young professional working on her fourth degree in human rights law and international relations. A veteran of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, Kaiser's goal was to utilize data for humanitarian purposes, most notably to prevent genocide and human rights abuses. But her experience inside Cambridge Analytica opened her eyes to the tremendous risks that this unregulated industry poses to privacy and democracy.
Targeted is Kaiser's eyewitness chronicle of the dramatic and disturbing story of the rise and fall of Cambridge Analytica. She reveals to the public how Facebook's lax policies and lack of sufficient national laws allowed voters to be manipulated in both Britain and the United States, where personal data was weaponized to spread fake news and racist messaging during the Brexit vote and the 2016 election. But the damage isn't done Kaiser warns; the 2020 election can be compromised as well if we continue to do nothing.
In the aftermath of the U.S. election, as she became aware of the horrifying reality of what Cambridge Analytica had done in support of Donald Trump, Kaiser made the difficult choice to expose the truth. Risking her career, relationships, and personal safety, she told authorities about the data industry's unethical business practices, eventually testifying before Parliament about the company's Brexit efforts and helping Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, alongside at least 10 other international investigations.
Packed with never-before-publicly-told stories and insights, Targeted goes inside the secretive meetings with Trump campaign personnel and details the promises Cambridge Analytica made to win. Throughout, Kaiser makes the case for regulation, arguing that legal oversight of the data industry is not only justifiable but essential to ensuring the long-term safety of our democracy.
Targeted includes 20-30 photos.
About the Author :
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Brittany Kaiser became an impassioned advocate for politics at a young age, spending most of her career working for progressive political campaigns and human rights organizations. She holds degrees in human rights law and international relations from The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, The University of London's Birkbeck College, and London's Middlesex University. Brittany worked for Cambridge Analytica in the UK and the U.S. for three and a half years before blowing the whistle on her former employer and the unethical business practices of the global data industry. She is the primary subject of the Netflix Original documentary, The Great Hack, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Brittany is the co-Founder of the Digital Asset Trade Association (DATA) and, with the fundamental belief that data rights are human rights, is focused on using her expertise to advance legislative reform to protect the rights of individuals to control their own digital assets, such as personal data and blockchain tokens.
Review :
“[Targeted] is a rarity: a book that is both important and gripping.” - Washington Post
"What kind of people does it take to be whistleblowers? It takes those whose loyalty is not ultimately and exclusively to their career. Or to their boss. Or to their agency. Or even to the president of the United States. It takes those with a loyalty to the Constitution and to preserving democracy and the First Amendment, and the Fourth Amendment, which are in shreds at this moment, actually. It takes those kinds of patriots. Unfortunately, there aren't very many of them. And those who do speak out, I identify with and thank and congratulate, and that applies to my friend Brittany." - Daniel Ellsberg, Author, Activist and Pentagon Papers Whistleblower
"When I realized that something was wrong at Facebook, it would have been easy to say, 'I'm retired. Someone else can deal with it.' You get tested in your life only a few times. For me, this was one of those times. I realized that if I did not stand up and do something about this, it would mean that I would never take a stand about anything. So, I stood up. Brittany has been through a similar experience. I'm not asking anybody to nominate me for sainthood. Brittany's not doing that, either. My goal here is to do what I can to protect democracy, to help fix something that is terribly broken. Brittany is doing the same thing. We need the people inside these companies to come forward and set the record straight, to get the facts out. We need transparency. We need heroes." - Roger McNamee, early Facebook investor and New York Times bestselling author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
Captivating and revelatory...with the 2020 election just around the corner, this account should be required reading. - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
