id="article-body" section="articleBody" This story is part of Road Trip 2019, profiles of the troublemakers and trailblazers... moreid="article-body" section="articleBody" This story is part of Road Trip 2019, profiles of the troublemakers and trailblazers who are designing our future. It's safe to say that Mark Zuckerberg won't be friending Chris Wylie on Facebook anytime soon. In fact, Wylie isn't even on Facebook anymore. He was banned after exposing a scandal at the world's largest social network, a scandal that sparked global criminal and political investigations and implicated one of the world's biggest and most powerful technology companies and its billionaire founder.Wylie, a former data consultant, blew the whistle on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica affair, In March 2018, a joint investigation by The Observer and The New York Times revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a now defunct British data consultancy, used the Facebook data to create political ads for elections in multiple countries. Wylie was the former employee who exposed the scandal -- and his life -- to the world. It's a sprawling, contentious story that he's chronicled in a book publishing Tuesday called Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break AmericrIn blowing the whistle, Wylie didn't implicate himself in data misuse, but he was left to grapple with the knowledge that he helped build a big cyber gun for hire. Normally not at a loss for words, Wylie only struggles for the right words over the course of multiple conversations when he tries to describe to me the surrealism of his experience and its impact on his life. "A blur," is all he can sarA year and a half after the revelations and his appearance before a UK parliamentary committee to speak about Cambridge Analytica's activities, Wylie is finding life somewhat calmer. The sharp scrutiny has faded, and since December 2018, he's had a new job at global retailer H&M as a research director, building what he describes as ethical AI systems to help the company become more sustainable and more profitable and to better serve its customers' needs without exploiting them in the procesr"I just want to make sure that what I'm doing is genuinely going to help somebody here in the world who I might never know or might never meet," he says. "People who work in the cultural space, I think, genuinely don't understand how much power they have with making the world a better place. Let's wield itrThe way he tells it, he didn't expect much when he accepted H&M's invitation to come to Stockholm to chat, but he got a good vibe straight away. During a lunch meeting, someone walked in and placed a stem of roasted cauliflower in front of him. It's gesture that Wylie, a vegan, vividly remembers.r"I was like, 'Oh, it's table service in a boardroom -- cool,'" he says. But then the server sat down beside him and joined in the conversation. "Turns out, it was actually the CEO, who ran to go get some vegan food. But he didn't introduce himself as the CEO, he just sat down."rThis act of humility and empathy was Wylie's first glimpse of what he views as the company's "enlightened" ethor'From fashion to fascism'When we met in June at Serata Hall, a cavernous bar and restaurant in the Shoreditch district of East London, Wylie's hair had reverted from the vibrant pink he wore when he first shot into the spotlight, and the green it later became, to its natural white blond with hipster micro bangs. His signature nose ring was still in place. Though Canadian, he pre-vetted the place with a very British brand of self-aware sarcasm, deeming it "sufficiently millennial" for his tastes.rTucked away on the mezzanine of the airy bar, we ordered "unicorn G&Ts." As the server poured grapefruit tonic into small-batch gin made with blue pea flowers, the two liquids turned a pastel lavender hue as they mingled. The drinks were an appropriate choice given that we were there to talk about his turbulent journey from fashion school, to Cambridge Analytica, to his role at H&M -- or as he describes it: "from fashion to fascism to fashionrOut of context, it's a statement that has the potential to sound glib, but in fact Wylie's publicly acknowledged regret is key to understanding the direction his life has taken in the wake of the scandal. From his very first interview published in The Guardian and echoed in his conversations with me, it's clear he's not just trying to expose wrongdoing but attempting to own his role in the scandal and undo the harm he did personally. In the very first Observer profile of Wylie when he emerged as a whistleblower, a friend describes Cambridge Analytica as his own "data FrankenmonsterrIt's been a personal reckoning that has meant confronting his demons, often in public. It's impossible for Wylie to talk about Cambridge Analytica without acknowledging and being challenged on his own actions in front of politicians, in journalist interviews and on stages in front of massive audiencerWylie is finding ways to make amends.Andrew Hoyle/CNET "Like so many people in technology, I stupidly fell for the hubristic allure of... less
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