From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.
Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.”
Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade―told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.
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Inside accounts of tech industry executive power and political influence gained widespread public attention through the release of the 2025 memoir Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. Written by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook, the book provides a direct look at the internal decisions, political strategy, and corporate growth of one of the world's largest social media companies during a period of massive global expansion and controversy.
Published over the objections of her former employer, the memoir offers readers a firsthand narrative detailing how product design, corporate ambition, and political pressure intersected behind closed doors. Sarah Wynn-Williams draws on her insider experience as an international lawyer and tech policy executive to examine the breakdown of public trust and ethical accountability within major technology corporations.
Sarah Wynn-Williams grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she survived a life-threatening shark attack as a teenager while on a family vacation. She went on to qualify as a lawyer and worked for several years as a diplomat and international lawyer, developing expertise in global policy and foreign affairs. In 2011, after pitching a role directly to leadership, she joined Facebook as a public policy advisor during an era of swift international expansion.
Over her six-year tenure from 2011 to 2017, Wynn-Williams served as Director of Global Public Policy, leading policy teams across multiple international markets as the platform navigated global elections, regulatory oversight, and heightened public scrutiny. Following her departure from Facebook in 2017, she continued her policy work with a focus on emerging technology and artificial intelligence. In 2025, following the release of her book, she testified on corporate policy and oversight before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee.
In her investigative non-fiction, Wynn-Williams combines personal narrative with corporate analysis to examine the internal operations of Big Tech and the challenges faced by insider whistleblowers. Her writing focuses on recurring themes of tech governance, political influence, the erosion of organizational idealism, and the conflict between aggressive user growth and public responsibility. By documenting specific executive decisions and international policy disputes from her corporate tenure, she offers a structured examination of leadership culture in modern technology companies.
