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    Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
    Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
    Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
    Audiobook13 hours

    Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again

    Written by Brittany Kaiser

    Narrated by Brittany Kaiser

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 22, 2019
    ISBN9780062965813
    Author

    Brittany Kaiser

    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. 

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    Reviews for Targeted

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    • 4/5
      Breaking History-A White House Memoir, Jared Kushner. Author, Sean Pratt, NarratorI had both the print and audio of this book. I was very impressed with the information put forth, but thought Jared could use a bit of humility in his presentation. Still, he covered the time leading up to an through the Presidency of Donald Trump accurately, representing both sides of the aisle, often. Jared is more likely a liberal, as is Ivanka, at least in their daily lives. Still, as they both worked diligently to advance the policies they supported, President Trump encouraged their efforts, possibly showing that both sides of the aisle can be fairly represented when the desire to do so is present. However, what Jared showed a great deal of in his book, was the disinterest in, and active obstruction of, anything the Trump administration supported. Democrats denied the idea of Trump’s Presidency from the moment he earned the nomination and were not condemned for it, but actually they were actively supported even afterwards when they questioned and denied the election results. How different the Democrats feel today in the face of obvious chicanery in the last election which defeated him. In supporting the policies of Trump, Jared places himself front and center in most of the controversies Trump faced, riding in and solving the problems after everyone else messed up. If this is indeed true, he was a valuable asset to Trump and the country. In his effort to highlight his achievements, he does highlight Trump’s achievements very well, and proves what a good President he really was for the country, in spite of his rhetoric, which was often not politically correct and was insulting. Still, he has been targeted relentlessly and unfairly, so some slack has to be given when considering his over the top responses. After reading the book, and after realizing how much of the accomplishments have been rolled back to the detriment of America, one has to question the aim of the current administration. Is it to help America and American citizens, or is it merely to seek revenge? Jared Kushner earned the respect and admiration of many of the people he worked with, on both sides of the aisle and of many foreign leaders and diplomats. Just thinking back about the Middle East including the Abraham Accords, immigration reform, Mexican policy, China negotiations, payroll guarantees, North Korean diplomacy, energy independence, criminal justice reform, the achievement of a vaccine and providing supplies needed during a previously unknown pandemic not prepared for by the Biden/Obama administration during their term, helping in the fight against the unfair charges leveled against Trump and his White House, the mockery of the impeachment charges and the Russian Dossier, shows some of the positive effects of his work. The presentation of the details of how he achieved the goals of the President are intensive and thorough. Hopefully, they are also accurate.Jared describes himself as the lynchpin in most of the consequential decisions made by the White House, and so far, no one has contradicted him. He accurately describes conditions in politics that continued to try Trump in “the court of public opinion”, unfairly. He was rarely covered positively although he achieved monumental unexpected goals. Kushner names the names of those who were deliberately thwarting Trump’s efforts though they were theoretically on the same side; he names Trump’s fiercest opponents and identifies their lies and their duplicitous methods. An honest appraisal of the book will acknowledge that Trump was a good President, he achieved a lot that was ignored at America’s own peril, and will recognize the atrocious level of obstruction and slander that is still being leveled at this man who believes he has worked his whole life to advance his country’s needs whenever he was asked. Although Jared does not really stress the fact that Trump was maligned, as he seems only to want to promote himself in this book, he still exposes the enemies in Trump’s own administration; he explains why there were so many hiring changes made, why so many remained who were enemies, and why the lack of political expertise hindered their efforts. He makes the reader aware of the heinous behavior of Trump’s enemies on both sides of the aisle.In short, his efforts and the description of the Trump Presidency is honest, even though it is often not positive, and Jared and Ivanka’s opposition to some of Trump’s policies are distinctly left-wing. One has to wonder, however, if Jared thinks anything would have been accomplished without him. Some of the people he exposes are tainted journalists like Chris Wallace and Steve Bannon of Breitbart who was self-serving and leaked relentlessly, Megan Kelly and all those who perhaps unknowingly competed with him, defeating his efforts, Corporate leaders like Tillerson, Generals like Mattis, and a host of others like politicians, Pelosi, Schiff, Clinton, Obama, Christie, and Biden, and ordinary people like Howard Kohr of Aipac who unfairly pushed back against Trump, Stephanie Grisholm who worked in the administration but was disappointed because she did not achieve her own personal goals and resented the help of others which she viewed as interference, and Lewandowski who tried but who was not able to achieve good public relations for the administration. In the face of the disgraceful, left-wing obstruction and fury about Hillary Clinton’s losing the election, I am not certain anyone could have achieved that goal.Perhaps the most positive moment in the book for me was when Jared described Trump as magnanimous, someone who could talk to everyone, and was not an elitist. That is a side of Trump not often promoted or even discussed. If only the press had covered Trump fairly, his accomplishments which were world changing, but were largely ignored, would have been even greater. Instead, after each achievement, charges of new conspiracies were mounted against him.Jared is more likely a liberal and a democrat, but he uses those left-wing talking points, subtly, and promotes them under the surface. The book illustrates the atmosphere Trump was faced with, even from his own family. It is really worth the read to understand how great Trump’s achievements were, how much opposition he faced and was still able to achieve so much, and how sad it is that the very things that earned America respect again, are being rolled back. We are watching our country descend into chaos with outrageous crime, rising prices, a failed border policy and a Democrat Party that is more divisive than any other ever has been, that cares little for achieving American greatness and more for petty vengeance as sore losers.
    • 1/5
      A BFD , The usual Leftist Pro big gov intellectual Ivy League PhD mouth . Bloviators for Democracy. She is FOS.
      But if you want to see what formal fallacy of logic is? Start with the title of the astroturd work. And see how much sophistry and fallacies you can spot. This woman is at war against the commoners. She is at war against advanced western civilization. But you? The common man thinks she stands up for freedom? Democracy is the opposite of freedom. The democrat party runs the US. America is a one party state. Trump's win was a one off. The democrat Party runs the bureaucracy, the media, unions, education, the health industry, professional licensing, Big Tech. And You most likely. The Demo party owns the US and proved it by putting Biden in the WH. BK knows her audience. Most americans have resentment towards capitalism. And are happy to commit suicide by sophistry.
    • 4/5
      I'm so glad I read this great book. It shows how we poor humans can ease into absolutely immoral acts by telling ourselves over and over again that we're doing the right thing, or we might be doing something a little wrong but we're doing it for a good reason (financially helping out our destitute parents - the ones with closets full of designer clothes and storage units full of possessions), or we know what we're doing might be a little iffy but we're doing a really good job. I'm a great proponent of having a good work ethic. Brittany Kaiser has a great work ethic, but it turns out that maybe a great work ethic in the pursuit of immortality might not be laudable after all. This is Shakespearean in its analysis of humanity.
    • 2/5
      The author tries to present herself as a naive young woman overwhelmed by a charismatic man, but honestly comes across as just as self-serving and amoral as the rest of the company. When the sh*t starts to hit the fan she jumps ship and re-invents herself as a data-protection crusader. I was not impressed.