“There's nothing better for self-reflection than just brutal honesty, right? I call it radical transparency. Just being totally honest about exactly what happened and making yourself live through that. Every time you have to say it, you re-punish yourself for the decisions you didn't make back then.”
— Brittany Kaiser

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In March 2018, The Guardian broke the news of one of the most massive data breaches of all time. Cambridge Analytica was harvesting the data from as many as 87 million Facebook profiles.

This data was used to profile audiences and then to target individuals who were deemed possible to influence. Cambridge Analytics unleashed an unprecedented campaign of information warfare during such political campaigns as Brexit and the US 2016 elections, which were considered by many to be surprising results.

Once the news broke of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Brittany Kaiser, the former director of business development, turned whistleblower handing over her hard drive and over 100,000 documents as evidence.

In this interview, we discuss how she came to work at Cambridge Analytica, the Brexit and Trump campaigns and whether she is a whistleblower.

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Show notes and transcription:
https://www.defiance.news/podcast/facebook-cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-brittany-kaiser

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Timestamps:
- 00:01:42 - Intro
- 00:02:03 - Brittany’s Background
- 00:07:47 - The Barack Obama campaign
- 00:10:40 - Voter suppression in Trinidad
- 00:14:49 - Brittany’s work in human rights
- 00:18:09 - Brittany introduced to Cambridge Analytica
- 00:24:24 - Brexit
- 00:31:15 - Trump campaign
- 00:35:16 - Fallout from the Trump campaign
- 00:41:05 - Deciding to blow the whistle on Cambridge Analytica
- 00:53:51 - Changing the course of history
- 00:59:05 - Trump impeachment case
- 01:02:16 - Hiding out in Thailand
- 01:07:16 - The Great Hack
- 01:10:12 - Brittany’s book Targeted
- 01:11:10 - Self-reflection
- 01:13:48 - What needs to change?
- 01:22:20 - Brittany’s sister Natalie

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