Brittany Kaiser

Brittany Kaiser
Brittany Kaiser in November 2019 during Web Summit 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Born
Brittany Nicole Kaiser

(1987-11-06) 6 November 1987 (age 37)[1][2]
Houston, Texas, U.S.

Brittany Nicole Kaiser (born November 6, 1987)[1][2] is the former business development director for Cambridge Analytica, which collapsed after details of its misuse of Facebook data became public. Cambridge Analytica potentially impacted voting in the UK Brexit referendum and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Kaiser testified about her involvement in the work of Cambridge Analytica before a select committee[3] of the UK Parliament and to the Mueller investigation.[4][5]

Early life

Kaiser was born in Houston and grew up in Lincoln Park on the North Side of Chicago.[2][6] Her father worked in real estate development and her mother worked for Enron.[7] She has a sister named Natalie.[8]

Kaiser attended elementary school in Chicago until she moved to attend Phillips Academy Andover in 2005, then went on to study at the University of Edinburgh, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of London’s Birkbeck College, and earned certificates of study at the World Bank Institute and US Institute of Peace. She later obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Middlesex University.[9][7][10][11] Her main focuses during her studies were international relations and human rights [12]

Career

While she was studying at the University of Edinburgh, Kaiser took time off to work on Barack Obama's media team during his presidential campaign in 2007. During this time, she volunteered for Howard Dean's presidential campaign and Barack Obama's senatorial campaign, later becoming part of the small new media team for Obama's 2007/08 presidential campaign.[13] She also worked for Amnesty International as a lobbyist appealing for an end to crimes against humanity.[11][14]

She began focusing on ways to enhance the effectiveness of social change initiatives, such as developing data-driven early warning systems to prevent genocide. She also worked in international trade and development and traveled globally as a freelance political consultant.[13]

She first met Alexander Nix while working with Democrats Abroad in London, likely in 2013. Mutual friends, finding humor in their opposing affiliations—she with the Democrats and he consulting for the Republican Party—introduced them. Nix expressed keen interest in her experience with the Democrats, handing her his card with the remark, “Let me get you drunk and steal your secrets.” She chose not to follow up.[13]

SCL/Cambridge Analytica (2015–2018)

See also: SCL Group, Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

Between February 2015 and January 2018, Kaiser worked full-time for the SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, as director of business development. During her time at Cambridge Analytica, Kaiser worked under senior management, including CEO Alexander Nix.[7] Following the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Kaiser fled to Thailand. In 2018, she testified before the digital, culture, media and sport select committee of the UK Parliament that far more than 87 million people may have had their Facebook data harvested by Cambridge Analytica, and discussed privacy issues posed by Facebook.[3][2] In April 2018, Kaiser started a Facebook campaign appealing for transparency, called #OwnYourData.[14]

Kaiser is one of the subjects of the Netflix documentary The Great Hack, talking about her work with Cambridge Analytica.[10][15] The documentary provides details about how Cambridge Analytica used data brokers and an online app to accumulate information on tens of millions of Facebook users, gathering data on a massive scale.[16]

Kaiser's memoir, Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again, was published by Harper in October 2019. The book details how companies are illegally using data to influence people’s choices.[17][18][19]

In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Kaiser said she wanted Facebook to ban political advertising.[20]

Further reading

2019

In June 2019, Kaiser was appointed to the advisory board of Phunware, a tech company that collects smartphone location and user data.[21] The company became involved in the Trump 2020 reelection campaign through a $3 million contract awarded by Brad Parscale's American Made Media Consultants.[22] Kaiser resigned from the board.[citation needed]

On New Year’s Day 2020, Kaiser began to release internal documents from Cambridge Analytica links to material on elections in Brazil, Kenya and Malaysia.[23]

In an online interview with Philippine media outlet Rappler on July 15, 2020, Kaiser revealed that former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, had approached Cambridge Analytica with a request to do a "rebranding" of the family's image.[24] She described the efforts of the Marcos family to rebrand their family image as an example of historical revisionism in a data-driven and scientific way. This request was said to have brought up heavy debate among the staff at Cambridge Analytica, but was nevertheless accepted by CEO Alexander Nix, as it was a financial opportunity. Rappler requested a comment from Marcos' spokesperson Vic Rodriguez, who replied on Thursday morning, denying the allegations brought up by Kaiser. Rodriguez branded the report as "patently fake, false, and misleading", saying that his party had never heard of Cambridge Analytica until their data breach scandal. He also accused Rappler of creating a "marketing ploy" to boost support towards the news outlet and stated that Marcos is considering legal options against Rappler for the report.[25]

In July 2020, Kaiser became the campaign manager for the Brock Pierce 2020 presidential campaign.[26]

In an interview with Business Digest Magazine, Kaiser said she wanted people to be able to own their data and receive a dividend or a portion of the multi trillion-dollar industry.[27]

Giving evidence for the House of Commons committee[which?] the information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said that Kaiser refused to be interviewed by them regarding their investigation into Cambridge Analytica/Facebook.[28]

In 2020, Kaiser was the subject of an art installation by Tara Kelton.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Gamerman, Ellen (October 20, 2019). "In Books and Movies, Whistleblowers Tell All". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019. Kaiser, former business-development director at Cambridge Analytica ... The 31-year-old Texas native
  2. ^ a b c d Timberg, Craig; Helderman, Rosalind S. (August 2, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser's work with Cambridge Analytica helped elect Donald Trump. She's hoping the world will forgive her". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019. Kaiser first emerged in last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal ... Kaiser — at the time a 30-year-old
  3. ^ a b Hern, Alex (April 17, 2018). "Far more than 87m Facebook users had data compromised, MPs told". The Guardian. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  4. ^ Cadwalladr, Carole (February 17, 2019). "Mueller questions Cambridge Analytica director Brittany Kaiser". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  5. ^ Lomas, Natasha (July 30, 2019). "Former Cambridge Analytica director, Brittany Kaiser, dumps more evidence of Brexit's democratic trainwreck". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  6. ^ Mosthof, Mariella (July 24, 2019). "Netflix's 'The Great Hack' Spotlights Data Mining Whistleblower Brittany Kaiser". Romper. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Debnath, Neela (August 13, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser net worth: How much is Cambridge Analytica whistleblower worth?". Express.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  8. ^ Cogan, Marin (June 19, 2018). "Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Brittany Kaiser Is Out to Clear Her Name". ELLE. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  9. ^ EDT, Sophia Waterfield On 8/2/19 at 11:41 AM (August 2, 2019). "Who is Brittany Kaiser? Netflix documentary "The Great Hack" casts light on central whistle-blower in Cambridge Analytica scandal". Newsweek. Retrieved February 19, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ a b Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (July 24, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser Now: Where Is She Today & How Old Is She?". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  11. ^ a b Santiago, Ellyn (February 17, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019. Brittany Kaiser, 31
  12. ^ https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-and-sport/Brittany-Kaiser-Parliamentary-testimony-FINAL.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ a b c Kaiser, Brittany. "Written testimony to the Fake News Inquiry Brittany Kaise" (PDF). Archived from the original on January 27, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. ^ a b Murdock, Jason (April 17, 2018). "Who is Brittany Kaiser? Cambridge Analytica whistleblower teases new revelations". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  15. ^ Robinson, Abby (August 1, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser from Netflix's The Great Hack – What happened to her next?". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  16. ^ Timberg, Craig; Helderman, Rosalind (August 2, 2019). "Brittany Kaiser's work with Cambridge Analytica helped elect Donald Trump. She's hoping the world will forgive her". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  17. ^ P, Jinoy Jose (December 2, 2019). "Manufacturing consent 2.0". @businessline.
  18. ^ Limbong, Andrew (October 22, 2019). "Former Cambridge Analytica Director Says She Saw Company Techniques 'As Savvy'". NPR.org.
  19. ^ Kaiser, Brittany (2019). Targeted: My Inside Story of Cambridge Analytica and How Trump and Facebook Broke Democracy. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062965790. OCLC 1111158293.
  20. ^ Wakefield, Jane (November 6, 2019). "Great Hack insider: Ban Facebook political ads". BBC.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  21. ^ "Phunware Appoints Brittany Kaiser to Advisory Board". www.phunware.com. June 19, 2019. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  22. ^ Fang, Lee (December 11, 2019). "The Donald Trump Campaign Is Deploying Phone Location-Tracking Technology". The Intercept. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  23. ^ Cadwalladr, Carole (January 4, 2020). "Fresh Cambridge Analytica leak 'shows global manipulation is out of control'". The Guardian.
  24. ^ "Rappler Talk: Brittany Kaiser on protecting your data". Rappler. July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  25. ^ "Bongbong Marcos asked Cambridge Analytica to 'rebrand' family image". Rappler. July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  26. ^ President, Brock Pierce for. "Whistleblower and Data Rights Activist Brittany Kaiser Joins Brock Pierce for President as Campaign Manager". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  27. ^ "Interview with Brittany Kaiser". www.bestbusinessdigest.com. November 10, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  28. ^ "Parliamentlive.tv".
  29. ^ Kamayani, Sharma (2020). "Tara Kelton at Mumbai Art Room". Art Forum. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  • [1], twitter account links to Kaiser's documents