Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a scary book and a warning to all of us who click 'Accept' to the T&Cs on websites and apps, T&Cs written and presented in such a way that no-one could be expected to read them; those of us who Accept All cookies because it is too awkward to change the settings every time we visit a site (ever noticed that, even if you do choose which cookies to enable, the Accept All button is still the most prominent one on the form, that you have to look carefully for the Save My Choices option?). Most 'users' think that their data is unimportant; they may have read of meddling in elections, but those are targeted at the politicians...

Mind*ck, written by an insider, who admittedly is at pains to paint himself as the hero in certain situations, explains just how your data is used to target advertising, steer you towards 'news' which reinforces your prejudices, and determine your personality to place you in a silo where everything you read online, the clickbait, is selected by algorithms to control the way you think. It sounds like Science Fiction but it is all too plausible. And despite Wylie's epilogue, setting out a vision for regulation, the simple truth appears to be that we have gone too far; we are living in a world where lies are more palatable than the truth, where most people know, deep-down that they have been lied to, that laws have been broken but for them, and for the lawmakers, it is easier to accept the outcome that challenge it...

Or perhaps Wylie is wrong, Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Brexit truly is the will of the majority. Perhaps Trump did make America Great Again, and Steve Bannon, and Dominic Cummings, are visionaries who will lead us to a great awakening. Perhaps.

Or perhaps we are all F*cked.

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