This is an insider's guide to how politicians and policy makers have sold our democracy to Silicon Valley and what we can do about it

Users : What Big Tech Doesn't Want You to Know - And What to Do About It

In 2013, former Hollywood director Beeban Kidron made a ground-breaking documentary about the lives of children online. She uncovered a shocking story of exploitation and greed that changed everything - and ignited her relentless crusade to hold the tech giants accountable.

In Users, Kidron reveals everything she's learned from her life as a campaigner and legislator, taking you inside the halls of Parliament and the UN to the White House and Silicon Valley. Through her encounters with lobbyists and tech bros, you'll witness the ruthless tactics these powerful men use to lie, cheat and steal their way to unchecked power, all while avoiding the rules and regulations meant to protect us.

You'll see how the issue is not technology itself, but its use and abuse. How tools built to connect people are redeployed to divide, punish, distract, and control; while our tech overlords come to own everything - but continue to be held responsible for nothing. Now that we know their game, it's time to fight back. This book will show you where it all went wrong, who's really to blame, and what we can do about it.

Baroness Beeban Kidron

Baroness Beeban Kidron is a member of the UK’s House of Lords and a former film director. She is a leading voice on children’s rights in the digital environment and a global authority on digital regulation. She has played a central role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.

Baroness Kidron sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords. She is the Honorary President, founder and former Chair of the 5Rights Foundation, a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, where she chairs the Digital Futures for Children research centre, and a member of the Lancet Psychiatry’s Commission on Global Action on Problematic Usage of the Internet. She holds several roles at the University of Oxford, including as an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI, a Fellow at Jesus College, and as a Visiting Fellow to the Department of Computer Science. Until 2024, she was an expert consultant to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence.

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