Brittany Kaiser, former business development director at Cambridge Analytica and whistleblower, shares insights from her book, TARGETED. She narrates her journey from supporting Barack Obama's campaign to realizing the dark side of data usage in politics. Kaiser discusses the ethical pitfalls of online campaigning, the implications of Facebook’s data mishandling during the 2016 election, and warns that the 2020 elections could be even worse. She highlights the urgent need for regulatory reforms to protect democracy from misinformation and data exploitation.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Path to Politics
Brittany Kaiser's interest in politics began with environmental policy and evolved into human rights activism.
This led her to work for Barack Obama's 2008 campaign after leaving her law degree.
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Obama Campaign's Data Collection
Kaiser joined Obama's 2007 campaign, focusing on new media and creating his Facebook page.
Her team used rudimentary data collection methods like Excel sheets to track voter reactions.
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Leaving the Obama Administration
Kaiser didn't continue in the Obama administration because she wanted to pursue human rights work in China.
Despite working for the Obama campaign, Kaiser experienced emotional distress due to racial hatred encountered on social media.
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The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
Brittany Kaiser
In this book, Brittany Kaiser provides an eyewitness account of the rise and fall of Cambridge Analytica. She reveals how the company, funded by conservative billionaire Robert Mercer, exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to manipulate voters in both Britain and the United States. Kaiser discusses her initial idealism and her later realization of the unethical practices within the company, which led her to become a whistleblower. The book highlights the risks to democracy posed by the unregulated data industry and argues for the necessity of legal oversight to protect data privacy and democratic processes.
Cambridge Analytica’s former business development director Brittany Kaiser talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about her new book TARGETED: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again. Kaiser talks about how she first observed the dangers of social media while working on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, why she mistakenly believed Cambridge Analytica was using technology as a force for good, and what happened when she decided to turn on the company and testify about its abuses in the UK Parliament. She also deconstructs Facebook's excuses for the scandal and its slow response, and predicts that 2020 could be "exponentially worse" than 2016 for election interference.
Featuring:
Brittany Kaiser, author of TARGETED: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again.
Hosts:
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large
Decoder with Nilay Patel 
