"Mindmasters" by Sandra Matz is a thought-provoking and timely exploration of how Big Data and psychological targeting shape our modern lives. Matz, a professor at Columbia Business School, masterfully blends personal storytelling with cutting-edge research to shed light on the deep and often unseen ways algorithms influence our behaviors, emotions, and decisions.

What makes this book stand out is its balanced approach. Rather than demonizing technology or glorifying its potential, Matz presents a nuanced, engaging view of psychological targeting. She draws from real-life examples and groundbreaking studies to explain how algorithms—like those used in marketing and politics—are not only penetrating our most intimate thoughts but also helping us make healthier and more informed decisions.

Her clear and relatable style makes complex concepts like computational psychology and behavioral prediction easy to understand. The book is packed with fascinating insights, from the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal to more positive uses of data, such as improving mental health and promoting financial well-being. Matz takes readers on a journey that makes you rethink what’s really happening behind the scenes in the digital world.

What I found particularly compelling is Matz's focus on empowerment. While the book highlights the potential dangers of data-driven targeting, it also offers hope by showing how we can regain control over our data and personal choices. She provides actionable strategies for navigating the digital landscape in a way that allows us to harness the benefits of these tools while protecting our autonomy.

"Mindmasters" is an essential read for anyone curious about the intersection of technology, psychology, and privacy. Matz not only opens our eyes to the hidden forces influencing us but also equips us with the knowledge to take back mastery over our lives. It's a brilliant, insightful book that will leave you questioning how much of your daily life is shaped by algorithms—and how you can regain control.

I had mis-anticipated the content of this book when I requested for a review copy on Netgalley. As always Harvard Business School Publishing has promptly released the book for my review - Thank you!

I loved the book - so much that I covered it in the time I normally cover thriller fiction. There is so much going on in every page of this book. So many facts related to our interactions with the online world, and what that means today, and what it will mean tomorrow! Many of the insights covered by Sandra are not known to most of us when we are happily using location services, credit cards and other tools of convenience. We are mostly paying with our data to the obvious and not so obvious intermediaries in the whole process.

She covers how one can be easily profiled based on our posts and tweets online - and adding location, purchases etc a digital detective can easily reconstruct over identity and who we are as a person! She highlights how companies/labs can easily use such data shared inadvertently online, to psychologically target us. Though not completely reversing thought processes but planting seeds of an opposite thought. This can possibly have implications on things we buy or people we vote for, not overnight, but repeated messaging.

She cleverly lays down both the good and the bad sides of allowing data about us to be available for use online - there are benefits from helping us with mental, financial, safety aspects while we can lose so much more when it is used for bad. She suggests the need for more finer control over the privacy and data about users, and advocates the idea of data cooperatives where users can choose what data they share and gain benefits to the extent they share data. This is quite an interesting way to take care of this matter.. The way technology is evolving, the need for discussions on this aspect becomes very crucial - as we are already seeing with the overwhelming use of genAI in the last year!

In summary I found this to be an insightful book, covering my interest area of human behaviour and technology in one stroke. Highly recommend you to go through it.

This book was interesting. I learnt new things about data management, our digital lives and what it tells people. There is also a hint of the positive that all this data could be used for. I am looking forward to hearing about the next steps in this data evolution. Thank you to the author for sharing. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher.