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heathercorinne's review against another edition
5.0
"I used to believe that the systems we have broadly work. I used to think that there was someone waiting with a plan who could solve a problem like Cambridge Analytica. I was wrong. Our system is broken, our laws don’t work, our regulators are weak, our governments don’t understand what’s happening, and our technology is usurping our democracy."
I mentioned this book to several people in my life as I was reading it passionately and no one knew what Cambridge Analytica even was, which is further terrifying.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, although it absolutely horrified me. It made me want to remove all social media from my life, but as Christopher points out it's nearly impossible these days without severely disadvantaging your social connections and employment opportunities.
It is an eye opening firsthand account of what is going on behind the scenes of our daily lives as we mindlessly scroll. How our data is used to manipulate us for the agenda's of the highest bidders.
At the end he outlines some recommendations for regulation which would be very good steps in the right direction. Sadly, I'm not sure how that will happen.
I mentioned this book to several people in my life as I was reading it passionately and no one knew what Cambridge Analytica even was, which is further terrifying.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, although it absolutely horrified me. It made me want to remove all social media from my life, but as Christopher points out it's nearly impossible these days without severely disadvantaging your social connections and employment opportunities.
It is an eye opening firsthand account of what is going on behind the scenes of our daily lives as we mindlessly scroll. How our data is used to manipulate us for the agenda's of the highest bidders.
At the end he outlines some recommendations for regulation which would be very good steps in the right direction. Sadly, I'm not sure how that will happen.
razhamdani's review against another edition
3.0
Alexander nik , ceo of CA, is living off his pension in London. Facebook got fined some millions of dollars by ftc/sec but is operating. Former senior mgt of CA have created their own data companies promising data privacy. Trump got hsi term, so did b Johnson. Brexit leave campaign(its digital side was being managed byAIQ, a Canadian subsidiary of CA) got fined for campaign finance law break but brexit was not reversed. CA, which bribed, honey potted and hacked with impunity in African elections (Nigeria), used propaganda videos on social media was not punished for these crimes.
So basically CA has closed shop, but got away with it. A British posh , nik, got seed money from an American, Robert mercer, while Steven brannon joined as its ideological head to create a company that would upend the existing culture. Bannon wanted to harness the incel and unemployment white mens'angry energy to cause enough choas to bring about a chnage in America ln society. He saw America as being this capitalist entity with no purpose. He wanted to unleash a new culture in America. To achieve that, lots of data was acquired from fb (though apps) , users were profiled using behavioral traits, their online data was combined with real world data, to create a segmentation of users. These segments provided lists of non voters and angry white men, often overlapping. They were then targeted to win elections and make the American,British political culture more divise and hate filled.
A few data scientists spoke up in 2018 after brexit and trump victory. They thought the segmentation of users would be fed anti racism and other progressive data, but the opposite happened. Guardian, ny times, channel 4 all broke the story. British and American parliaments held inquiries but no one was prosecuted as stated above.
Russians, who were known to be close to leave.eu campaign that was being managed by CA, got introduced to trump campaign via leave.eu backers. Russians were aware of CA, and probably got hold of its usa FB data during this period. What else was exchanged with trump campaign we can only speculate.
Finally the writer wants the big Internet utility companies to be subjected to statuary codes about not trying to influence users behaviour, to let Internet users have their agency, to let data engineers and coders report their companies when they are asked to write unethical code, to levy fines on such companies (based on the current value of their user data value) and for companies to check their every feature on how it would impact users before rolling that out. Spicy, hate filled, gossipy links get more clicks, that's how humans evolved by paying attention to dangerous signs.
Hoping for a more positive Internet.
So basically CA has closed shop, but got away with it. A British posh , nik, got seed money from an American, Robert mercer, while Steven brannon joined as its ideological head to create a company that would upend the existing culture. Bannon wanted to harness the incel and unemployment white mens'angry energy to cause enough choas to bring about a chnage in America ln society. He saw America as being this capitalist entity with no purpose. He wanted to unleash a new culture in America. To achieve that, lots of data was acquired from fb (though apps) , users were profiled using behavioral traits, their online data was combined with real world data, to create a segmentation of users. These segments provided lists of non voters and angry white men, often overlapping. They were then targeted to win elections and make the American,British political culture more divise and hate filled.
A few data scientists spoke up in 2018 after brexit and trump victory. They thought the segmentation of users would be fed anti racism and other progressive data, but the opposite happened. Guardian, ny times, channel 4 all broke the story. British and American parliaments held inquiries but no one was prosecuted as stated above.
Russians, who were known to be close to leave.eu campaign that was being managed by CA, got introduced to trump campaign via leave.eu backers. Russians were aware of CA, and probably got hold of its usa FB data during this period. What else was exchanged with trump campaign we can only speculate.
Finally the writer wants the big Internet utility companies to be subjected to statuary codes about not trying to influence users behaviour, to let Internet users have their agency, to let data engineers and coders report their companies when they are asked to write unethical code, to levy fines on such companies (based on the current value of their user data value) and for companies to check their every feature on how it would impact users before rolling that out. Spicy, hate filled, gossipy links get more clicks, that's how humans evolved by paying attention to dangerous signs.
Hoping for a more positive Internet.
krivens's review against another edition
5.0
Surprisingly easy to read and interesting. Helped me understand all of the hullabaloo.