Whistleblowers have been getting a fair bit of attention in the new recently. Edward Snowden’s memoir Permanent Record hit stores earlier in September. The currently unidentified whistleblower who broke the story about Donald Trump’s connections with the Ukrainian government sparked an impeachment inquiry against the President. And now, Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who broke the story about Cambridge Analytica has written his own memoir about the scandal that is slated to release Oct. 8.
image via random house
You might remember Cambridge Analytica as the data-mining firm that found itself at the center of a political scandal in early 2018. Wylie revealed CA had harvested tons of Facebook users’ personal information without their knowledge or consent for use in political campaigns.
In particular, Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz were discovered to be working directly with Cambridge Analytica. It was a watershed moment in how the public thinks about the personal data they post online, and Facebook’s reputation has never quite recovered. In the documents Wylie supplied to reporters, Cambridge Analytica was even implicated in influencing the Brexit referendum.
image via getty images
Now, Christopher Wylie is publishing a book through Random House that tells the story of how he came to break the story. Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America is scheduled to release on October 8th, and Random House has described it as “both exposé and dire warning” about the potential to manipulate people with online data.
Featured Image Via CBS News