This is an insider’s guide to how politicians and policy makers have sold our democracy to Silicon Valley and what we need to do to take it back.

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 is a global authority on digital regulation and accountability and a leading voice on children’s rights in the digital environment. She has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world. Baroness Kidron sits as a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords, and is Founder and Chair of 5Rights Foundation. She is also a Visiting Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics, where she chairs the research centre Digital Futures for Children.

Before being appointed to the Lords she was an award-winning film director and is co-founder of the charity Into Film.