Christopher Wylie
Chris Wylie | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1989 or 1990 (age 34–35)[1] |
| Education | London School of Economics (LLB) George Washington University (MA) |
| Political party | Liberal Party (Canada) Liberal Democrats (UK) |
Christopher Wylie (age 28)[2] is a Canadian whistleblower who was the former Director of Research at Cambridge Analytica.[3]
In 2018 Wylie became a whistleblower, giving The Guardian documents that described the secret workings behind Cambridge Analytica.[2] The documents center around Cambridge Analytica's alleged unauthorized possession of personal private data from some 50 million Facebook user accounts, obtained for the purpose of creating targeted political campaigns for the 2016 US presidential elections. These campaigns were based on psychological and personality profiles mined from the Facebook data.
On 27 March 2018, Wylie gave evidence to the UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee which contained further revelations about the practices at Cambridge Analytica and its associated companies.[4]
Wylie's revelations triggered government investigations on both sides of the Atlantic and pushed long-simmering privacy concerns.[5][6]
Life
Wylie was born to parents Dr. Kevin Wylie and Dr. Joan Carruthers[3] who were both physicians. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia.[3] At age 6 he was abused by a mentally unstable person, and the school tried to cover it up. In 2000 his father and he won a settlement of CA$290,000 against the school district.[3] As a child he was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD.[2]
He left school at 16 without a qualification, but by 17 was working for the Canadian opposition leader Michael Ignatieff. He taught himself to code at age 19. At 20, he began studying law at the London School of Economics.
In 2013 he was introduced to SCL Elections which would later create Cambridge Analytica.
Personal life
Wylie is self-described as gay[7] and vegan.[8]
In an interview with The Guardian, Wylie stated that Rebekah Mercer (Cambridge Analytica's main investors were Robert and Rebeckah Mercer), "loved the gays, and so did Steve Bannon. He figured if you could get the gays on board, everyone else will follow...(like the) Milo Yiannopoulos thing".[9]
Notes
- ^ Meet Chris Wylie, High School Dropout Who Blew the Lid Off Cambridge Analytica
- ^ a b c "Christopher Wylie: The whistleblower in the Cambridge Analytica scandal". Straits Times. 21 March 2018.
- ^ a b c d Larsen, Karin (20 March 2018). "Who is Christopher Wylie? How a B.C. high school dropout set out on path to political data harvesting". CBC News. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/christopher-wylie-facebook-cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-appears-in-front-of-uk-lawmakers.html
- ^ washingtonpost.com March 21 2018: How Cambridge Analytica’s whistleblower became Facebook’s unlikely foe
- ^ see also politico.com 20 March 2018: Congress to Facebook: Send us Zuckerberg
- ^ Jackman, Josh (20 March 2018). "Gay Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie: Why does Facebook want to see my dick pics?". Pink News. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Cadwalladr, Carole (18 March 2018). "'I made Steve Bannon's psychological warfare tool': meet the data war whistleblower". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Signorile, Michelangelo (20 March 2018). "It Matters That A Gay Man Helped Trump Backers Exploit Facebook Data". Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 March 2018.