The Great Hack: Faces Up To Ethics and Technology in a Gripping Netflix Doc

By José Alberto Hermosillo

The Great Hack. The poster is courtesy of Netflix, ©2019 Netflix.

Extraordinary and unnerving. The new Netflix original documentary “The Great Hack” exposes the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which information on Facebook was manipulated to polarize voters and data was misused to undermine our democracy. 

 

The dream of a connected world became a nightmare when foreign organizations manipulated the Brexit referendum in England and the 2016 elections in the United States, Brazil, and Myanmar. Those inconceivable victories left everyone astonished and powerless.

The Great Hack. Photo courtesy of Netflix ©2019 Netflix.

Facebook has become the digital gangster of our time. When Americans learned that social networks made millions of dollars by selling their data to Cambridge Analytica, they stopped using Facebook for good.

Companies like Cambridge Analytica developed sophisticated ad campaigns that targeted consumers’ preferences, drawing on people’s likes, previous purchases, web searches, credit card swipes, and locations, all connected in real time.

Your digital traces became a tradable asset on the stock market, and we, the people, were converted into a valuable commodity.

The Great Hack screening. Photo  José Alberto Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA.

 

Trading data has become a trillion-dollar industry. Today, data is worth more than oil. Scary? Still waiting. Congress must act to protect elections and preserve the country’s integrity, democracy, and national sovereignty.

 

“The Great Hack” openly questions who feeds us fear.

The Great Hack. Photo courtesy of Netflix ©2019 Netflix.

 

Searching for the truth, Academy Award nominees Karim Amer and Jehame Noujaim (“The Square”) investigated and discovered who was lying under oath by juxtaposing Facebook participation with Cambridge Analytica’s and Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress.

 

Jehame Noujaim and Karim Amer, directors of The Great Hack. Photo  José Alberto Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA.

 

Amer and Noujaim’s extraordinary documentary focuses on three whistleblowers: Professor David Carroll. He determined how the British company obtained the user’s information and sued Cambridge Analytica in London. This lawsuit launched the popular hashtag campaign #ownyourdata. 

 

The Great Hack. Photo courtesy of Netflix ©2019 Netflix.

 

Brittany Kaiser is another crucial witness in the case. Kaiser was an insider who was caught up in the information madness. She let people know what Cambridge Analytica was doing behind the scenes. Before that, she served as a liaison between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks to obtain Hillary’s emails. The scandal affected millions of American voters. In the film, Kaiser emphatically remarked, "Data is the most valuable asset on earth.” 

 

The Great Hack. Photo courtesy of Netflix ©2019 Netflix.

 

British journalist Carole Cadwalladr is another key player who uncovered the information warfare used by Cambridge Analytica and its alliance with Facebook. But more than a “Ted Talk,” viewers need to hear the other side of the story.

 

The Great Hack. Photo courtesy of Netflix ©2019 Netflix.

The filmmakers of “The Great Hack” take a global approach but avoid covering Poland, Germany, and Mexico’s presidential elections, where the problem had more far-reaching consequences and more players. The first two countries contend with a growing extreme right, while the third faces an equally risky radical left. 

“The Great Hack” does not explain how France stopped online foreign interference weeks before its election - something the US could not accomplish years after its contentious 2016 decision.

Other crucial, politically charged documentaries worth watching include the Palme d’Or winner “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Oscar® nominee “The War Room,” “Citizenfour,” and “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks.”

Jehame Noujaim and Karim Amer, directors of The Great Hack. Photo  José Alberto Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA.

 

“The Great Hack” accurately and effectively presents “new information” about privacy, which can either contrast with or reinforce the viewer’s recent memories.

 

The paranoia about “Big Brother” watching us began in the 1960s and 1970s, when experts studied subliminal messages in TV ads. Nowadays, people reveal so much about themselves online that companies can become predictable enough to influence people’s decisions.

 

“The Great Hack” raises awareness of how we can use social media responsibly and continues working toward a world where technology and ethics coexist harmoniously. It is a challenge we must be ready to take.

 The Great Hack - Official Trailer

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