meganlee96's review against another edition

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4.0

Very informative, factual book.
This book was informative and available for all using easy to understand language and explanations.
Definately gave me a shock as I didn't realise how much data I gave away by being online and even how it was used by third parties.
Definately recommend this book for all.

glitterkitter's review against another edition

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3.0

As someone who didn't follow this in the news as much more than headlines, it's nice to see it all laid out together (though I'm sure there are much better and more accurate accounts than this one), but for an inside story, it doesn't actually tell you anything. Reads more like a memoir and the author is clearly trying to diminish her own responsibility in what happened. She's somehow highly in all of these things, but claims to not have known about anything important, makes a point of mentioning charitable donations or campaigns she volunteered for when she was younger, how much she really would have liked to vote for Hilary/Sanders etc etc.

meganlee3001's review against another edition

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4.0

Very informative, factual book.
This book was informative and available for all using easy to understand language and explanations.
Definately gave me a shock as I didn't realise how much data I gave away by being online and even how it was used by third parties.
Definately recommend this book for all.

tinycamper's review against another edition

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2.0

Read mindfuck by Christopher Wylie instead.

_wastelandbaby's review against another edition

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2.0

Fascynuje mnie wykorzystanie Big Data na różne sposoby i pod tym względem książka nie zawiodła. Ale jeśli chcemy się dowiedzieć się szczegółów na temat firmy Cambridge Analytica to autorka nie da nam więcej informacji niż możemy znaleźć w internecie. Sama przyznaje że zajmowała się bardziej przedstawieniem oferty klientom, organizowaniem pracowników, miejsc pracy itd. O szczegółach kampanii Trumpa dowiedziała się jakiś czas po jego wygranej, o wycieku danych z Facebooka dowiedziała się z gazet tak samo o tym że CA jednak nie usunęła tych danych ze swojej bazy.
Autorka także mniej więcej co 4 strony musi nam przypomnieć że jest demokratka i była wolontariuszką przy kampanii Obamy. Oczywiście nie przeszkodziło jej to w pokazywaniu się publicznie z czołowymi republikanami czy wierzeniu w kłamliwe filmy na temat Hillary Clinton (przyznaje też że głosowała na Sandersa w prawyborach ale później olała wybory prezydenckie). Ma też mnóstwo tłumaczeń na swoje zachowanie, niby na koniec przyznaje że podobało jej się zadawanie z "wyższymi sferami" to jednak uznaje że była to wina manipulacji jej szefa. Sam fakt że postanowiła opowiedzieć o wszystkim co wiedziała na temat interesów CA dopiero po pierwszym wycieku danych i jej zwolnienie z firmy mówi sam za siebie. Nie podobał też mi się to że próbowała zdyskredytować oryginalnego whistleblowera CA - Christophera Wylie pisząc że z tego co wiedziała o nim z firmy jest osobą o totalnie innym zachowaniu niż sam siebie przedstawia. Pewnie jakby zapytano innych pracowników CA o nią to też by jej nie przedstawili jako filara firmy za którego się uważała.
Ogólnie ta książka jest dobrą przestrogą o tym jak pieniądze, poczucie wyższości i pochwały z ust charyzmatycznej osoby potrafią omamić każdego. Wyniosłam z niej dużo ciekawych (i szokujących) u informacji na temat big data i ochrony danych osobowych ale przy okazji wycierpiałam przez autorkę która od pierwszej strony tworzyła sobie wymówki. Nie wiem czy było to tego warte.

Chyba jednak lepszym wyborem byłaby książka Christophera Wylie - Mindf*ck (której niestety jeszcze nie czytałam).

shoshin's review

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dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This book didn't tell me much that I didn't know, but knowing how much attention most people give to these things, it would be very informative to most people. Definitely recommend. 

One refrain kept going through my head: The love of money is the root of all evil. It bears remembering. 

rick2's review against another edition

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3.0

Pretty good. Very interesting. The Cambridge Analytica stuff is terrifying. As a book, it a good portrait of how “good people can do bad things.” But while the CA parts are riveting, I found myself getting frustrated at the blindness Brittany followed the Blockchain trend as a redemptive arc.

Blockchain is NOT the solution to privacy. Maybe in 20 years when the energy demands are lower and unforeseen magic innovations have fundamentally changed computing. But for now, in 2020, blockchain is a slow, inefficient, energy intensive way to partially solve some of this. Frankly, having a single point of failure, like a digital ledger, seems awful. It’s amazing to see so many people who dont have technical knowledge go gangbusters for blockchain. It was one of my pet peeves of 2019, and for reasons like this.

I’m not sure Brittany is the person who should be doing privacy advocacy. Business development is not technical know how. I should know, I was in biz-dev and have shifted to the engineering side of things. It’s a long painful process of filling huge gaps in your knowledge. Her technical explanations seem very Jedi-hand-wave. And it would make sense that solutions stemming from that would be wonting.

It seems that the author was looking for an easy fix to many of the privacy issues she felt were being overlooked. Blockchain represented an "out," a sort of release valve to the cognitive dissonance being felt by an idealist in a predatory work environment. The way a drowning man may cling to a chunk of flotsam to keep afloat, it does not represent the ideal flotation device, but fulfills a need in a time of crisis.

beth_menendez's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5 Stars. The content is important to get across but in The author’s attempt at being honest, she comes across as whiney and very immature at times. I do not actually need to know that she seemed to be a functional alcoholic while she worked for CA. I want to know why what CA is a big deal and why their actions should never be repeated. Still, the topic overall is a good first step into the topic of data security.

auroratr's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

queenvalaska's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

3.0